SEEDlings

I understand the read/write web. I knew it was cool. I’ve envisioned reaching out and having authors write back to the kids.

Today, my students collected email addresses of history professors and asked their opinions on the issues where studying.

Thirty seconds before the final bell our blog received it’s first reply. It’s even cooler when it’s your stuff.

Thought I’d chime in with some things. I am curious to know if anyone out there has used “Writely”. www.writely.com. It has reopened since it has been acquired by Google. I think some of the tools there could be used as a whole organizational, conferencing and teaching peice for ELA. Any other people out there using it or anyone who does extensive writing use something to organize those efforts in the classroom?

Thanks,

Jeff Bailey

Our schedule Gathering of Geeks is schedule for June 20. Alice Barr has graciously agreed to let us work in the Flex Room of Yarmouth High School. You get there by following these wonderful directions -

http://www.yarmouth.k12.me.us/YHS/directions.htm

The day will begin at 9:00 and end formally at 3:30.

Lunch will be on your own. There are many places in the local area where one can dine.

The focus of the day will be blogging and wikis. There will be structured instruction if desired, but mostly people will gather in the right group with the right purpose because today is the right day for that work. In short, the universe will provide.

Please bring your laptop and mostly importantly something cool you’d like to share.

Please register at edublogs.org before attending.

Please RSVP with Alice (asbarr@adelphia.net) and CC me on that email. (mnolette@mainecenter.org)

Please extend this invitation to other geeks. We are an equal opportunity lover of geeks.

I won’t be attendance because I have to make some money, but I’m looking forward to hearing how things went.

John C. Dvorak wrote an article for PC Magazine entitled, “Knowing What to Know - The Cheating Debate.”

Here’s an interesting excerpt from it.

Today’s educational systems just do not get modernity. And by that I don’t mean that people shouldn’t learn calculus or Roman history. I mean they should be encouraged to use the most modern tools available to them to gather, organize, and present information.

That’s the point about not cheating. Let a student go online while taking a test. Why not? Let them do research on the fly while taking a test. What’s the point of memorizing that Ben Franklin was born in 1706 when that tidbit is available online? And knowing the fact itself proves nothing. Higher-education mavens tell us how important it is to learn how to learn. How about knowing what to know? Isn’t that just as important? You wouldn’t think so, as this debate rages.

One thing I can guarantee you: The eventual winner of the debate will be the folks on the modern-technology side of the aisle. Unfortunately, the celebration in the victory circle is still a ways away, and kids will suffer in the meantime.

What are the skills that teachers need to let go of? Are we still doing “old things in old ways” as Marc Prensky would say? Are our students suffering as Dvorak states?

As technology integrators we need to find ways to get teachers thinking about education in the 21st century. I posted a link to this article in our school news on FirstClass and had a great conversation with a teacher in my building about the concepts presented in it. While she didn’t agree with Dvorak, she did rethink some of her thoughts after our discussion.