Is Lurking a Bad Thing?

I have been checking my Twitter account and always find the stuff that Will Richardson puts up to be fascinating. today, he talks about "Why Blogging is Hard" and I think he hits the nose on the head. it is about risk, risking failure or disagreement, or not being good enough. I have a hard time keeping up with blogging because i am not always sure I have something worth saying. i started out using the blog more as a journal, and have made it a personal mission to try to stick with it. I am just not certain that I have anything interesting to say.

I have listened to a learned from a lot of people in the last year. THEY are experts; I am not. I seem to lurk on twitter and lurk at webinars. Ironic that my interest in Web 2.0 has been primarily 1.0 on my part. So, I need to share, I guess. Build up confidence.

Maybe that is how a lot of our students feel too. As new learners, it has a far greater social consequence for them in their world. It is all about how they want to be perceived, which is often far from what they really are.

So, if nothing else, I am learning not just tech, but about taking risks and being willing to "put it out there." The other great lesson is about empathy, especially with my students, who feel this same way about new content, processing, and presenting.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons

Kicking off 2009 @ school

Today we had a presentation by Nichole Pinkard at school. As the director of Innovation at the U of C and recipient of a $1.6 million grant from the MacArthur Foundations, she has been really making some changes in the way kids do things. Our hope was that her presentation would get people thinking about teaching the kids where they are and implementing more technology in the classroom.

The important idea to me right now is that people understand that there is actually more to technology than just computers. Actually, I sometimes think that 1:1 could be isolating. Of course, that is just my opinion today, could change. The main idea is that, given the current state of the economy and the amount of technological hardware our kids have at home, we should be thinking outside the box a bit. Flip cameras are technology that can be used to have 4 kids collaborate on one computer to make a film. Mp3 players, especially those with video capabilities, allow the students to be consumers of information on a different scale. Start thinking about MP3 files as homework assignments and take advantage of that downtime they have between travelling from one destination to another.

About the picture?

This is from the blog of Eric Langhorst in Liberty, Missouri as he prepares his students to pilot a Zune project for Microsoft called the Speaking of History project . Podcasting and the use of MP3 players are an important part of his 8th grade social studies class.

A New Year , same old plan?

Well, I have had an adventurous year to say the least, meeting lots of people and learning some much at a variety of conferences. I attended Larry Fletcher's speech about boys and writing in Wilmette, attended an ICE COLD conference in Lisle, ICE in St. Charles , 2 archdiocesan conferences, one featuring Alan November,NECC in San Antonio where I also met the head of ICE, Ginger, and the head of Chicago chapter of ICE, Hattie. I had an exciting and stimulating trip to BLC in Boston that rocked my world in many ways, including my epal class as well as meeting and seeing so many tech "rock stars." I have a treasured picture of my and my gal groupies with Alan on my desk at school. I also attended 2 classes in Wheeling at the NSLS center on gaming. Come fall, I was really fortunate to be invited to attend the Urban Education Institute at Carter Woodson Middle School that also made a great impression on me. Again, movers and shakers! The following weekend, I spent in a Classroom 2.0 regional meeting Steve Hargadon and others coordinated by Lucy Gray. Lots of learning.

Since ICE COLD, I have been following some blog and learning so much at times I thought my head would explode. I also started to Twitter, but I hang around the edges and pick up information more than contributing, which is probably not a good thing. Nevertheless, I have picked up tons and actually viewed photos of the fire in California from someone's window and the New Year as it is celebrated on the beaches of Thailand. How cool is that?

So, 2009 is the year for me to build up my confidence and really start to get seriously into it. I have prepared a couple of power points following the suggestions in Presentation Zen and noting the warnings in Death by Powerpoint slide share as well as YOU TUBE which I will try out on Monday. My first project of the year is going to be to try to think more visually and take to heart the idea that a picture makes a greater impression than a bunch of text. In addition, I will try to follow my own guidelines that presentation software is just an " accessory' to the real star of the show which should be your story or speech.

My photo for today? A great photo that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times as the story of the sale of the Obama Senate seat broke. My favorite part? NOT DOCTORED AT ALL!!! What are the odds of such a perfect shot!

Will I blog every day? I doubt it, but I hope that I learn something everyday.

Today goal to me is to investigate istockphoto.com upon the recommendation of a friend. It is a fee that requires no royalties, but you need to purchase the art you want. There is some fabulous stuff out there. I also have looked into Spell by Flickr...so clever as well as the creative commons section of flickr.

I think I am off to a good start. I have blogged 50% of the days of this year. How small will THAT percentage get?

Typealyzed?

This was kind of a wacky happenstance as I was investigating a blog I heard about through Wordle on Diigo. The guy is a tech person in Texas and found the Typealyzer which will analyse your blog and tell what type of personality is the author. Apparently, I am a mechanic:



"The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters. "



Maybe this is true on a number of levels. The adventure and the risk I have chosen is to leave my real field of expertise, Middle School Language Arts and Social Studies, and jump into the challenge of trying to encourage my fellow teachers to take a leap of faith to utilize more tech in their classrooms. I am looking forward to returning in January (Ok, that sounds REALLY weird as I am not on break yet for Christmas) and introduce the idea of 21st century skills as being our real challenge. Critical Thinking, synthesis, analysing, creating, collaborating and storytelling are REALLY the things we need to work on. I am hoping that we can help create the connection of engagement by utilizing at least some technology. Once we use it, I know that there will be some enthusiasm on the faculty 's part.

So, maybe I am a mechanic, but right now I feel like I am trying to instigate some action that will ultimately result in setting a new path. This may , in fact, result in conflicts, but I hope note. Seth Rodin would call me a "heretic". That's my real goal.

Secret Life

I am pretty excited about a wiki I have created for the 8th grade girls to compliment their study of Sue Monk Kidd's Secret Life Of Bees. It is really a variation on the literature circle concept with 2 teams of 10 alternating chapter coverage of the 14 chapters. Over the course of their study of the book, each student will take on 7 different roles and post to the wiki. I am hopeful that , in addition to creating their own work, they will be creating discussion regarding the observations by their peers as well.

I am looking forward to the whole expereince with the students writing with purpose for a large audience. Should be exciting!

Mr new badge - Free Poverty

I read about this as part of a feed from Free Technology for Teachers. Lots of fun, and it gets substantially harder and quicker. Points are awarded in cups of water . a maximum of 10 cups per correct answer based on the proximaity of your marker to the actual location.
Great fun.
click on the link within the badge to play

You ain't got a thing if you ain't got that NING

We are experimenting today with a new tool that can introduce some web 2.o technology to our faculty. It is an exciting experiment.
More to come, as I am experimenting with the various tools it provides.