"Teachers must become comfortable as co-learners with their students and with colleagues around the world. Today it is less about staying ahead and more about moving ahead as members of dynamic learning communities. The digital-age teaching professional must demonstrate a vision of technology infusion and develop the technology skills of others. These are the hallmarks of the new education leader."
—Don Knezek, ISTE CEO, 2008 (http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS)
I rather like this “take” on professional development - an evolution of self, but not by yourself - with others, a collaborative, social approach to constructing knowledge, taking turns being teacher and student, both: co-learners. Not a competition but a journey meant to last a lifetime, each new step building upon the last, unfolding, never-ending.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
H Y P E R - - M E D I A , A W A Y ! ! ! !
With hypermedia I can leap tall tomes of information with a single click and swhoosh through cyberspace at swashbuckling speed to another world filled with still more information. But sometimes I wonder if maybe as I bounce from one screen to the next, I’m missing the depth of thought possible from reading and reflecting on an article or a book with chapters laid out in a purposeful way by the author.
I have been told that I am a free spirit. I admit I don‘t always think linearly. I like to have multiple ideas swirling around simultaneously. So, hyperlinks don’t bother me - much. I’m glad for them. Though I must admit I try not to click away until I’ve read the entire article through. But sometimes if I'm not really engaged in what I'm reading, I'll click - to be transported to another place. It's exciting.
I do worry, though, whether with Google and the explosion of hyperlinks, we may not be researching and thinking deeply. We grow impatient with articles that are more than a few paragraphs in length. It’s so easy to bounce from one idea to another, skimming through information, going off on tangents, until we run out of time and have to leave the computer. What do we have to show for the session? Have we researched in depth, have we reflected on what we have read, have we constructed knowledge or just skimmed the surface and picked up a few tidbits for tonight's cocktail conversation? Maybe we bookmarked a site or squirreled away some file, but aren't we just kidding ourselves? Will we ever come back to that information, and when we do, will we remember why we thought it was important in the first place?
I have been told that I am a free spirit. I admit I don‘t always think linearly. I like to have multiple ideas swirling around simultaneously. So, hyperlinks don’t bother me - much. I’m glad for them. Though I must admit I try not to click away until I’ve read the entire article through. But sometimes if I'm not really engaged in what I'm reading, I'll click - to be transported to another place. It's exciting.
I do worry, though, whether with Google and the explosion of hyperlinks, we may not be researching and thinking deeply. We grow impatient with articles that are more than a few paragraphs in length. It’s so easy to bounce from one idea to another, skimming through information, going off on tangents, until we run out of time and have to leave the computer. What do we have to show for the session? Have we researched in depth, have we reflected on what we have read, have we constructed knowledge or just skimmed the surface and picked up a few tidbits for tonight's cocktail conversation? Maybe we bookmarked a site or squirreled away some file, but aren't we just kidding ourselves? Will we ever come back to that information, and when we do, will we remember why we thought it was important in the first place?
Monday, October 13, 2008
Copyright
I have been on both sides of copyright issue. I’ve written educational software and owned a computer store for 15 years and now I am preparing to be a purveyor of ideas and knowledge as a school library media specialist. As a small business owner I understood the business-end of things. If people illegally copied software, then the programmer, the publisher and the store owner don’t make money which would eventually result in fewer quality programs being released, prices going up, companies going out of business. I understood the ethical side of things – unauthorized copying is cheating. I understood the legal consequences – those illegally pirating software risked fines and imprisonment. In the 1980s public domain software and shareware provided legal and free or low-cost alternatives to commercial software. As a sponsor for a computer user group, I educated users about copyright and made the free software available as a way for customers to broaden their software libraries.
Just as I appreciate the need and the right of authors and publishers to make a living and be compensated for their creative work, as an instructor I feel passionately about using every possible tool to educate students. I want to share the wonder, the excitement of learning that certain images or videos, audios or movies, stories or songs can evoke. If I have the chance to make an idea crystal clear in their minds, to bring about wonder and awe, how can I not grab that opportunity? Fortunately the Fair Use guidelines for education recognize and protect those desires of teachers, who operating in good faith, use works created by others in the classroom. As a SLMS I will again educate about the responsibilities of copyright and also the rights of educators to use resources with the copyright permissions of Fair Use.
Just as I appreciate the need and the right of authors and publishers to make a living and be compensated for their creative work, as an instructor I feel passionately about using every possible tool to educate students. I want to share the wonder, the excitement of learning that certain images or videos, audios or movies, stories or songs can evoke. If I have the chance to make an idea crystal clear in their minds, to bring about wonder and awe, how can I not grab that opportunity? Fortunately the Fair Use guidelines for education recognize and protect those desires of teachers, who operating in good faith, use works created by others in the classroom. As a SLMS I will again educate about the responsibilities of copyright and also the rights of educators to use resources with the copyright permissions of Fair Use.
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