November's ideas for educators are right on the money...how "we can help students manage their own experiences, including: managing their time, designing their own homework, co-creating assessments of their work, and continuously extending their collaborative work around the globe."

This is much more important than simply wiring schools and giving each student a computer...it really gets at the heart of learning where students are knowledge producers. November says that all students should be expected to create knowledge products and publish them for authentic feedback. But, this is the rub...we have many people who feel that teaching is controlling.

If we allow students to select their content and pursue what they are interested in...what are teachers to do? How can teachers control all of that if 25 students are doing "their own thing"? Well, perhaps not so obviously, they are not doing their own thing. They are pursuing essential questions...critical questions...about all manner of important content.

Students as knowledge producers. Are you a knowledge producer?

When isn't blogging?

I've been reading Will Richardson's excellent book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. It is well written, inspiring, and very useful for getting started with these tools. His comments about blogging in particular made me think about how we are using our blogs this semester. He makes several points about the differences between writing and blogging...

"Writing stops; blogging continues. Writing is inside; blogging is outside. Writing is monologue; blogging is conversation. Writing is thesis; blogging is synthesis."

Then he gives a spectrum or continuum of different types of Weblog posts to show where posting ends and blogging starts. I know where I fall on this spectrum and it isn't where I would like to be. Where does your blogging fit?

1. Posting assignments. (Not blogging)

2. Journaling, i.e. "This is what I did today." (Not blogging)

3. Posting links. (Not blogging)

4. Links with descriptive annotation, i.e., "This site is about..." (Not really blogging either, but getting close depending on the depth of the description)

5. Links with analysis that gets into the meaning of the content being linked. (A simple form of blogging)

6. Reflective, metacognitive writing on practice without links. (Complex writing, but simple blogging, I think. Commenting would probably fall in here somewhere.)

7. Links with analysis and synthesis that articulate a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind. (Real blogging)

8. Extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period of time that builds on previous posts, links, and comments. (Complex blogging)

Wherever we are on this continuum...let's see if we can push our blogging to higher levels.

Why is it so hard to believe that we are boring our students?

Marc Prensky's Edutopia article about 21st century digital learners is very interesting—and not surprisingly— extremely critical of today's schools. Prensky advocates that we should listen to students more instead of making all the decisions for them. The comments by the adolescents he quotes are provocative..."You think of technology as a tool. We think of it as a foundation -- it's at the basis of everything we do."

And then the other shoe drops..."No matter where I go in the world -- the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, or New Zealand -- students are mind-numbingly bored in class. Listen up." Ouch! While hardly a new idea (see several more comments below), the power of these statements is staggering.

"I'm bored 99 percent of the time." (California)

"[My teachers] bore me so much I don't pay attention." (Detroit)

"Pointless. I'm engaged in two out of my seven classes." (Florida)


So, what is he asking for? Nothing more than what we have advocated for a long time...listening to students' voices, using the knowledge and passion for learning they possess, and giving them opportunities to use the technology they use so seamlessly in their "other" lives.

What do you think? Are students today that much different from students of the past?

Technology...neither good nor bad?

The two articles we read for class this week—technology's influence on sports and student-centric learning—had very similar themes. Essentially, the authors were saying that technology isn't going to slow down and it is up to us how we use it. Technology itself is neither good nor bad...but how we put it to use is what is important. From previous comments in EDT 400 classes and on your blogs and forums, I get the feeling that some of you have an inevitable feeling that technology is steam-rolling our society and there is no way to control or stop it. Is that how you feel? Do you envision some sort of future where computers have taken over our minds—and more?

I liked this quote from the sports FAQ's article...

The question that Martens asks his colleagues to address is "How do we avoid technology taking us for a wild ride in which we have no control or little influence, but instead determine how we may optimally put technology to use..."(p. 252).

So, my question to all of you is...how DO we avoid technology taking us for a wild ride?

I confess...

that Moodle has been a huge help in organizing my classes this fall. Although I have used Moodle for several semesters, but this is the first time I've used it as the focus for everything we are doing. It is a terrific tool for keeping me organized, forcing me to think ahead, and providing a place for students to find all of the course materials in one place. Moodle allows us to have ongoing forums, wikis, chats, personal responses read only by me, and much more. Early responses from students indicate that they appreciate Moodle and enjoy using it as well.

Around the block one more time

I'm eight weeks into a training program for my first half-marathon to be run in Portland (ME) on October 5th. This is a family affair with five of us training and running the half; three of us are first-timers. Feeling strong and fit and enjoying the running more and more. My wife, Connie, and I ran our first double digit day (10 miles) a week ago and it went well...one more 10-miler tomorrow and then taper the rest of the week. More than anything else, I've enjoyed the discipline of the training and proud to say we've not missed one workout in the last two months. Not particularly concerned about my time for the race...just as long as I finish. My question: What do we do now? Continue training? Prepare for another race? Take some time off? I'm afraid to lose the level of fitness I've attained.

Playing with technology

This class is giving me a huge opportunity to connect my burgeoning interest in technology with learning...for learners at any age. I am already enjoying working with undergraduates (whom I have not taught in a number of years) in EDT 400. The trick will be to connect the learning—schools and students for half the class and clients for the other half of the class—and the technology. How do they work together? How much of what we do will also assist our own adult lives as well as our professional lives?

Struggling a bit with the content of this blog and what the focus could or should be. I guess my description on the title page says it all...learning and teaching. Perhaps the technology makes it easier for the learning to take the uppermost hand, because it forces the teaching to be secondary. Can't do too much frontal teaching when the technology forces us to jump in with both feet and simply try things out.

A fall day in Maine

A beautiful day to be sailing, swimming, bike riding...or posting my first blog entry. Looking forward to seeing my students' blogs in EDT 400 to see what they come up with and how they learn to use blogging in their own situations...the K-12 classroom and various iterations of exercise science careers.

For now, it is enough to know that they can use this medium in any number of ways...

And more to come here in the next few hours.