Mar 02 2008
The Catalyst
I thought I had better link to the catalyst that has moved me to begin this blog. First a little background.
I had the idea of blogging in mind for some time. Relating exactly how that was going to make me a better teacher, I couldn’t put into words. Then, along comes the ideas of wikis — which, if one can get past the technical and safety issues involved, seems to me to have the most potential for use with students for learning. I’m in the middle of trying to figure out how to jump in to the the 21st century when a colleague, Patti Donovan, sends and article entitled “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” (link to the article, here, or link to part 2, entitled, “Do They Really Think Differently?” here; both articles found on Marc Prensky’s web site; note also, his blog is available, here).
So the article Patti sends is so intruguing and interesting that I am convinced that I have not kept up with my professional obligations. So, I decide to start blogging. I surveyed my district colleagues to see who might be interested in forming a community of bloggers to help us stay current, share insights, to dream about what can be done, to learn together, and eventually recruit more teachers to use technology in ways that it shoud be used to help students learn in the 21st Century. All the teachers I have invited so far are those who responded that they are interested.
Then, an interesting thing happens. The Colorado Department of Education sends information about class on Blogs, Wikis and Nings. I decide to attend, and out of that class I decided to form this blog.
The district may be forming blogs with the official imprimatur, but until that happens this space will be my community of learners. For those of you who find this place, please join in and let’s learn and share together. It’s exciting to teach in the 21st Century.
One response so far
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Blogs give students a perfect vehicle to write. How can we get school districts to see how valuable this is? It seems to me that they would be jumping at the chance to remove the roadblocks that keep kids from writing. Just think not only would they be writing but they would want to be writing.