Last Day with Warlick and off to Bali!
Dear David,
I just wanted to send my deepest gratitude for spending this week with our staff here at SAS. You left the staff wanting more and pondering Web 2.0, redefining literacy, and getting into the whole digital world. The talk in the hallways, in the classrooms, and the fact that my session titled “Let’s Blog” went from 10 people to 25 because of your keynote is testament in itself. Today we brought 25 more teachers into the blogosphere. Now how many of them will continue with it? I’m not sure, but at least they have been exposed and the conversation can continue.
Personally I want to thank you for the conversations we had outside of Tech Fest. Just like NECC last year it is the conversations away from the conference that I am finding to be the most rewarding to me. It is a strange feeling meeting someone you feel like you know through their writing, their podcasts, and their thinking for the first time and getting to spend a week truly getting to know that person. It goes to show that even though these conversations in the digital world are amazing, there is still something great about a face to face conversation that we crave…which is a good thing and goes to show why teachers will never be replaced by computers all together. We still want and need that face to face interaction with people.
Tech Fest was a success, conversations started, plans for the future unveiled and an excitement that I hope I can harness, continue to keep going and help to create a school that is striving to be a leading International school by 2012.
But for now…it’s time for a break…Chinese New Year starts tomorrow and we get the week off. In 1 hour I fly to Bali where it is 85 degrees, sunny and white sandy beaches await. The place we are staying has no TV, no newspaper, no radio, and no real ‘connection’ to the outside world. The perfect place to reconnect with nature, to reflect on the pass week, catch up on some reading, and just be.
Until I return keep the conversation going and I’ll see you when I’m tan. 🙂
Jeff
[tags]techfest[/tags]
Technorati Tags: warlick, sastechfest07, sastechfest, jeffutecht
“no TV, no newspaper, no radio, and no real ‘connection’ to the outside world” Sounds blissful. Enjoy!
Jeff,
It was an honor, a pleasure, and a golden opportunity for me. On a trip like this, you can’t help but have regrets, such as spending some money at the chow chow chow place. Sorry I just can’t remember what it’s called, but that place with floor after floor after floor of tech stuff. Amazing, and amazingly overwhelming.
But my number one regret is not getting to see you present. It was immensely valuable for me to get to know someone whose head is already wrapped around this stuff, and energized with the possibilities, and also in there, working with teachers and students. Great luck to you on TeenTek, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you present somewhere, very soon!
Later, bro! …on my way to Pudong Airport.
— dave —
So, are we redefining literacy yet? 😉
As I mentioned in another blog somewhere, the beauty of the week’s learning was that people got to the place where all embraced 21st century skills as the core of school and student success, no longer as an add on. Similarly, people (teachers and administrators who particpated) see that it is not the tech hardware that we need to be talking about as much as the new definition of literacy and what that means in terms of pedagogy. A paradigm shift in how we view teaching and learning :). Unfortunately, as a 47 year old new to this environment person, I am baffled by the new language of tags and am struggling to see how it all links together. But my hope is that all the other teachers for whom this also is a new land, will join me in forging ahead to enable the flat interconnectivty that is generating the dynamic learning of us all. Rolan Barth talks about a a great school being one where everyone under the schoolhouse roof is learning – students, teachers, administrators, board members – but now it is everyone in a vast interconnected network learning together. Thank you David and Jeff, and everyone who contributed, for catapulting SAS forward!
PS. I tried to post a great picture of David and the tech teachers at SAS so you could see that, yes, Jonathan, we ARE defining literacy, but couldn’t figure out how to get it up there…the old copy and paste maneuver didn’t do it . But since I didn’t go to Bali for Chinese New Years break like Jeff, maybe I’ll figure it out this week. Happy New Year – and it IS a new year for SAS. Check out our new schoolwide expected student learning results under the acronym EAGLES – all 21st century skills – at srputnam@edublogs.org.
Jeff, I’ve never seen your blog before but since I read David’s frequently, and he’s been writing about you, I’ve been hoping to meet you. Sure we haven’t really met, but I do like the possibilities of interaction that come with the blogosphere. On my way to dinner tonight, I was speaking with my friends sons about time zones. Though I’m late going to sleep in Michigan, you are probably starting to think about lunch. But regardless, we can communicate. I hope you’ve had a great vacation.
Andrew Pass
http://www.pass-ed.com/Living-Textbook.html
Interesting stuff. Hey, enjoy Bali, if you get to Borneo let me know,
-Jeff B