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Please feel free to edit the conversation with answers and solutions. Simply click Edit at the top right of the page and enter teacher as the password. You can insert text, in much the same way that you would with a word processor. However it is a very primitive word processor. You will see, at the bottom of the page, techniques for formatting your messages.

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Here is the transcript of your backchannel conversation for . This is a wiki page. As such, you can edit this page and insert text into the transcript, contining the conversation, as I have done. To edit, click the EDIT link at the top of the page. The password is teacher.

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Reading now, on flight back home from Texas. - dfw

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Thrilled to be here. You know you're in East Texas when you get out of the car and your glasses automatically fog up and you have not problem finding a good meal of seafood . - dfw

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One of the best things about this is that of evaluating myself. I learn from what you guys focus on in the chat, what I'm getting right and what I'm explaining wrongly. - dfw

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Yea! But it's a grade I don't think I could teach. There something about little 3 foot tikes hugging me around the knee caps -- I just don't think I could go there ;-) - dfw

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Yes! And we so need people who love the tech, who live the "light." However, I'm one of those who loves what you can shine that light on. - dfw

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Yep! However, in another presentation I make a point for increasing focus on art, music, drama, heritage, etc. and for the very same reason. When my wife and I bought an HDTV the other day, we weren't concerned about the tech of it. We were shopping for a better picture, better sound, etc. We were shopping for a better experience with what the creative arts people contribute. We shop creative arts much more than the technical arts. It's economy. Dan Pink and Richard Florida both express the very well. - dfw

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Knitterchat is a personal experiment and in constant beta. So it is not publicly available. However, I recommend the following free tools for your consideration:

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It is an intensely exciting and wondrous world that we live in. Learning about it should be just as exciting. - dfw

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Thanks for your comment. - dfw

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Hmmm! I'd actually not thought of this as something that would work in meetings. I don't do meetings that much since leaving the NC State Department of Public Instruction. - dfw

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Yea, but college is going to be interesting to watch. It's going to change. So much is going online, and not just because it's cool, but because it can be done more cheaply. College costs too much, considering how much money most people make from the jobs they're prepared for, after graduation. College is going to change, and I'm a little lamentful about that. I'm a romantic at heart when it comes to education. Can you believe it? - dfw

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The future they're going to choose. The future they are going to invent. - dfw

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I think that this is a huge distinction that many educators do not realize. A classroom that is information abundant is very different from a classroom that is information scarce. It's a wholly different approach to teaching and learning, especially when that information is less packaged. - dfw

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And so much more. It's so much more than just programming. It's learning math by using numbers buy working numbers. The assessment is not just, "you got that right (√)!" or "You got that wrong (X)!" The assessment message is, "That Worked!" or "That Didn't Work!" No matter what the response, you've learned something new. - dfw

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This idea of students learning by learning to program is huge right now, and there are many more now in addition to Scratch. Interestingly, this was one of the earliest applications of computers in education, teaching children thinking skills by helping them learn to program. - dfw

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They're out of Australia. Very robust, but wonderful tech support, both in Australia and here in the states. - dfw

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Again, no or X. It's, "It worked!]+" or "[+It didn't work!" - dfw

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They move on by questioning themselves on the other side. Questioning drives their learning. There are actually size qualities that I usually write about, and one is that their experience is "powered by questions!" They are that the experience is...
  • Responsive
  • Provokes Conversation
  • Is powered by Questioning
  • Builds Identity
  • Inspires Personal Investment
  • Is Guided by Safely Made Mistakes - dfw

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Start small. Leave stuff out. Start with a problem, not an assignment. Why do we put word problems at the end of a math unit. Shouldn't the word problem come first, and students question themselves into the math. - dfw

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Yes, but student initiated inquiry. - dfw

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Yes, and what a fantastic question, "What do you think?" - dfw

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It's part of the conversation we were talking about after the presentation. The best professional development is the casual conversations that teachers have among themselves everyday. The district/schools need to facilitate those conversations, and much of can take place via the networks, Edmodo/Twitter, etc. - dfw

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Yea! Just think about the effects of asking 6th graders editing the writings of 4th graders, and then sent back to the 4th graders. Think of the effects of asking 8th graders to develop learning resources for 6th graders. - dfw

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That would be a great way to do it. It's what's wonderful about blogs, that you can do almost anything with them. - dfw

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Hmmm! Might be interesting to have just one blog and invite any teacher can write to it. You can set up categories for the blogs so that only 1st grade blogs could be viewed, or only Social Studies articles. So much you could do with this. - dfw
Another tool you might consider is Diigo. It's a social bookmarking tool. You can bookmark web sites with a comment as to how it might be useful. Sites can be tagged by subject area or even standards objectives. Any teacher could contribute to it and all teachers could access it. It could probably actually be intergraded into the blog, depending on the blogging platform you use. - dfw

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This reminds me of a recent NPR article talking about the difference between education in the U.S. and in Asia. Here, if we see students struggling with something, it's seen as a problem. Something's wrong. However, in Asia, students struggling is a good think. It means that they're working on their learning. It's the difference between working to make it easy to learn and working to make the learning hard. We value what we pay a higher price for. Of course high-stakes testing makes that difficult. We need to kill high-stakes testing. It's government conspiracy to kill public education. Did I say that out loud? - dfw

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We also need to give ourselves permission to get it wrong sometimes. - dfw

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Learning can be playful. Another big thing in ed tech is gamification, and not just in education. I'm afraid that we aren't really getting it right yet. Most of it is about badges, which is just a different way of giving grades. It goes much deeper than that, game mechanics. I know of a school in New York that actually hired two game designers to help students plan their units and projects. - dfw

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Would be so easy to do, and you could do it with just one blog. - dfw

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..and it's such an authentic way of learning. It's playful and empowering. - dfw

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Such a powerful thing to say to students. - dfw

David I look forward to reading your conversation. 23 Aug 2013 - 10:34:41

Mike That's cool.. 23 Aug 2013 - 10:35:09

Whitney Welcome to VISD! :) 23 Aug 2013 - 10:36:01

Melissa pugh Too cool 23 Aug 2013 - 10:36:04

Ryan Neato.... 23 Aug 2013 - 10:36:08

Jennifer Hello 23 Aug 2013 - 10:36:49

Jan Johnston We're in! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:37:09

Jennifer 1st grade rocks!!! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:37:18

tonya Love technology! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:37:28

Cody awesome! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:38:11

Melissa pugh STEM rox 23 Aug 2013 - 10:38:23

Christie This will be great to use in the classroom! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:39:03

Lisa This is great. 23 Aug 2013 - 10:39:06

Bugar

  1. :School is cool!

23 Aug 2013 - 10:40:34

Donna Loving Knitterchat! Thx for sharing Dave! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:41:23

Donna @Christie Yes! And in meetings and workshops too! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:43:16

Rexanne Thomas What a great tool! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:44:37

JE Rhodes School is cool and college rules! 23 Aug 2013 - 10:45:01

tonya I'll take that jacket in black please 23 Aug 2013 - 10:53:40

Whitney Prepare them for THEIR future, not ours. 23 Aug 2013 - 10:55:20

Rexanne Thomas Our classrooms no longer have to be information scarce. Access to technology removes the ceiling. 23 Aug 2013 - 10:59:32

Donna Teaching critical thinking with Scratch. 23 Aug 2013 - 11:09:38

Whitney Scratch.mit.edu Create stories, games, and animations Share with others around the world 23 Aug 2013 - 11:12:07

Whitney Edublogs http://edublogs.org 23 Aug 2013 - 11:13:44

Rexanne Thomas edublogs.org for teacher & student blogs 23 Aug 2013 - 11:13:51

Donna Edublogs--http://edublogs.org 23 Aug 2013 - 11:14:10

Rexanne Thomas Assessment generated when their learning experiences respond to them. 23 Aug 2013 - 11:15:44

Whitney We are a question asking culture. 23 Aug 2013 - 11:22:47

Melissa pugh The power of questions! 23 Aug 2013 - 11:29:52

Sarah Start small. The kids HAVE to ask questions. 23 Aug 2013 - 11:30:12

Melissa pugh True inquiry 23 Aug 2013 - 11:30:23

Melissa pugh Answer with a question 23 Aug 2013 - 11:30:49

Donna How can we work collaboratively among grade levels to create projects using technology? 23 Aug 2013 - 11:34:04

Donna @donna Let's work on that...any other teachers out there want to work across grade levels? 23 Aug 2013 - 11:37:49

Donna @donna Let's work on that...any other teachers out there want to work across grade levels? 23 Aug 2013 - 11:38:01

tonya Maybe a district wide blog for teachers to share ideas 23 Aug 2013 - 11:39:35

Donna The blog idea sounds good. Thoughts? Topical? Campus? Grade/subject area? 23 Aug 2013 - 11:43:42

Donna Children succeed by getting it wrong. Big paradigm shift in how we teach and think! 23 Aug 2013 - 11:45:38

Whitney We need to give them permission to get it wrong. 23 Aug 2013 - 11:46:23

tonya create one page with sub pages designated by grades/campus/topic? 23 Aug 2013 - 11:47:30

Donna Can we be playful enough to give ourselves permission to get it wrong? 23 Aug 2013 - 11:50:08

Melissa pugh I like the subject area grade level blog idea 23 Aug 2013 - 11:50:29

Melissa pugh I get it wrong a lot. That empowers my students 23 Aug 2013 - 11:51:22

Whitney Surprise Me! 23 Aug 2013 - 11:52:17

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Page last modified on November 20, 2013, at 01:16 PM EST