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Brave New Tech

These are my thoughts after seeing a video shared by David Truss on Facebook.



My notes
Just underlining from your vid:
A student says,
"I learnt more by sharing than searching"
So true. I would add: once you are connected, be alert to your network when they share content. It will probably be tuned to what you are doing, searching, discovering. It may lead to new thinking avenues.

David says,
"See the opportunities rather than the obstacles"
Hard not to get discouraged by the obstacles. Harder to see obstacles *
as* opportunities. I'm struggling to learn that at the moment.

I like to think that
technology is a game changer. Now in your vid, David, you play a competition game. Laptop versus pencil and paper. That makes me feel rather distant. Perhaps because the idea of the old way and the new way competing is not altogether right for me. I am thinking of pencils and computers as metaphors of a culture of teaching rather than tools. This is another point I need to reflect more on.

Among the members of the edublogosphere there is little to question: who would teach without technology? I can see you nod. Yet, when we talk outside the community, the hard question to answer is:

To what extent does technology change the way we learn?
Is there more beyond,
-soaring motivation levels;
-empowering, faster, more of you name it;
-audience pushing back at your content:
-back to motivation from real feedback that keeps the learning ball rolling.

What we call 21st century skills, aren't they somewhere deep inside the same old skills that have made any brilliant discoverer, researcher, learner succeed?

It might seem obvious, but after spending a short while inside a community, a kind of perspective is lost. A bit of the basics for us could still sound so foreign and complicated to others who have never read a blog.

Here my mind is not thinking of just the video, but of the audience of newbies I will face in my next presentation.

Now that is another post.

Labels: , ,

Thank you David for the tweet with the link to the better version of the video
http://twitter.com/datruss/statuses/922119515

I just updated the post to include it.

Hi Claudia,
I thought I was writing a response to this on my blog... but it started with just one aspect and stayed there, so here I am commenting on some of the things you said that struck a chord with me.
To start, it is the idea of how significant a network can be that I wrote about, so for that aspect, please have a look at my post:
http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighbourhood/

As for the competition... I borrowed that and used it word-for-word. In hindsight I should have edited it. Things like:
I will select my learning style
– you will use the teacher’s favorite learning style.

are not about technology in many ways, and I think that phrase can be considered insulting to good teachers.

However... and this is the piece I struggle with to explain... there isn't a competition because the old way cannot compete. In my classroom I worked on differentiated instruction as best as I could, and then I tried the blogging and wiki's (where I got those student quotes from) and I realized a big shift in what was happening. In my non-digital/tech class 'I' differentiated the learning 'for my students' and in my blogs and wikis 'the students' differentiated it 'for themselves'. That empowering nature is embeded in the use of technology... more so than without tech use... and only if the teacher allows the student the opportunity.

That said, I used this video at the end of a presentation to educators at BLC08 where I talked about the need to change to an audience ready to listen.

As the video spreads around my district now, reaching 'newbies' I wonder if it will have a positive effect?

Am I just preaching to the converted? Am I sending a message that isn't easily understood by those I most want to hear it?

I wish you luck with your presentation and I look forward to your insights, (as always:-)

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