K12online and Shanghai LAN Parties
The K12online Conference kicks off today with a Pre-Conference Keynote from David Warlick. I haven’t watched it yet but plan to later today as I make final adjustments to our K12online Shanghai LAN Parties.
This year we even have our own wiki site and once again have planned four 3 hour sessions where we will bring the conference local. Our resident digital artist David Gran even remixed the k12online logo to give it a little Shanghai flare for the parties. I like calling these LAN parties which stands for Local Area Network as we have teachers from 4 different schools in the Shanghai area getting together learning and forming those networks of learning we have all be talking about.
Our first K12online Shanghai LAN Party is October 16th. So if you are
in the Shanghai area and want to join please sign up on the wiki and
we’ll see you at the party!
I finished up my presentation yesterday on Sustaining Blogging in the Classroom. Not my best presentation by far. Throughout the presentation you can tell that I too am struggling with how to sustain blogs past that “Cool†factor in our classrooms. Not sure if anything I spew for 20 minutes is worth anything…guess only comments will tell. 🙂 But I also think it is good to show that these answers are not easy as we all in the Ed Tech network try and figure out how these new tools can be embeded into our classrooms as just everyday happenings instead of technology add-ons.
[tags]k12online[/tags]
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Jeff,
I especially connected in your last paragraph since today was a professional development day for us. The “Ed Tech Network” really does make it sound like if we build it they will learn. There aren’t any easy answers but we do have proven research related to instructional strategies — learning is a social process, we learn and grow by interacting with others, we learn by connecting new information to prior knowledge, we learn through comparisons and so on. We can only get so far with the “coolness factor” – sort of like a new toy that loses its value to a child as he/she grows up. This whole question about how to embed the use of these tools really is a struggle. What I’m trying to do is introduce the tool in the context of instructional strategies and proven practice. And that…is exactly what I need to work through some more in my brain tonight! Thanks for helping others to see that it’s not that easy!
I am feeling what you are saying in full regarding technology being embedded rather than add ons. I started online blogs with my classes this year – they HATE them for the most part! “Why do we have to do this???” I think that it is working nicely, but I have to think how I would like it to go for the remainder of the year. This is for high school math students.
As far as technology inclusion in the classroom, I feel that it is really difficult to get into the mindset of having technology as something to enhance the curriculum or a better way to bring it to life instead of how can I use the computers instead? even if it is not a better way. Sometimes it is frustrating using the computers with the time that it takes and the end result. It takes practice and I think overtime it will be easier.
Thanks for invitation!