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David
I look forward to reading your conversation.
27 Aug 2013 - 11:54:58
Now starting to read it. Just passed 10,000 feet, probably over Idaho. - dfw
Christine
I wish I had my ipad
27 Aug 2013 - 11:55:13
Hmmm! I should add a feature to signal what type of device you are chatting with. I think I could do that. Might be helpful to me or just interesting. - dfw
Principaldd
I miss my lawn chair...
27 Aug 2013 - 11:55:24
Yes! That must of been uncomfortable. It's really hard to expect you to sit and listen to one person for so long, in such small seats. I know that I've spent days at conferences attending sessions, and then the next day presenting the entire day, and sitting and listening made me much more tired. - dfw
Greg L
grits - like cream of wheat
27 Aug 2013 - 11:55:28
Kate20
Grrrittts
27 Aug 2013 - 11:55:38
I personally prefer cream-of-wheat. I little more flavor. - dfw
Gareth Cryer
I liked your analogy for life long learning!
27 Aug 2013 - 11:56:02
I like thinking of it as a learning lifestyle. Lifelong learning seems to me to be speaking of work. But today, it work, play, family, just about every endeavor requires us to learn and keep learning. - dfw
Dara
That is grits with two syllables.
27 Aug 2013 - 11:56:03
Haystack
Wake up Florko
27 Aug 2013 - 11:56:13
Principaldd
In west trail we called them polenta
27 Aug 2013 - 11:56:21
It's just a different state-of-being. ;-) - dfw
Principaldd
That's 3 syllables
27 Aug 2013 - 11:57:03
Gareth Cryer
Is this ike passing notes in the classroom??
27 Aug 2013 - 11:57:45
Functionally it is. But the purpose is different. Here, the teacher gets to read all the notes and respond to them. - dfw
Greg L
I have that suit!
27 Aug 2013 - 11:58:42
"Naw!" I do wish I still had that neru jacket. - dfw
Karen
Retro suit these days
27 Aug 2013 - 11:58:49
Bill
Nice outfit!
27 Aug 2013 - 11:58:57
Thing is, it quite impress folks in that rural South Carolina school district. - dfw
Melissa
the plaid suit should be our school uniform!
27 Aug 2013 - 11:59:02
Bernie
@ wish I had my reading glasses.
27 Aug 2013 - 11:59:21
Kim
canflip in Kelowna issued the same flash drive
27 Aug 2013 - 12:03:14
Melissa
ive got that nifty device
27 Aug 2013 - 12:03:43
Marilyn
Is that what I have to use for my furniture budget Principal D
27 Aug 2013 - 12:05:44
Kim
Parents need to hear these things too
27 Aug 2013 - 12:08:09
Often, when I work with a district for a number of days, I will volunteer, free of charge, to do an evening session for the community. I agree, these are things they need to hear, just as much as teachers. The community is often a barrier because of their own outdated notions of what education should be about. Interestingly, I will sometimes get a thousand in attendance and sometimes on four. - dfw
Karen
Prepare your students for their future.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:08:12
"..the future they are going to invent." - dfw
Doug
Skills req'd?
27 Aug 2013 - 12:09:50
The need to be skilled resourceful learners, with the confidence to invent their own answers/solutions when need-be. What's difficult for us is the fact that these skills can not be easily itemized and that's what teachers like to do, to sequence a list of skills. It's experience and a productive conversation about that experience. I'm reminded of Bill Edwards, my freshman vocational arts teacher. - dfw
MikeV
This is why "educating" is more important than "training"
27 Aug 2013 - 12:09:51
An interesting distinction. I wonder what the difference is according to Webster.
- Educating -- give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, esp. a child), typically at a school or university
- Training -- give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, esp. a child), typically at a school or university
The question that occurs to me is what best suites the act of preparing children to pass a standardized test, educating or training. - dfw
Marilyn
Skip that furniture budget, obviously!
27 Aug 2013 - 12:10:00
It has been interesting watching the school furniture industry trying to define desks and other items that suite 21st century education. - dfw
Bernie
"I'm not preparing students for my future" - I like that.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:11:26
..and if we buy into that, how do we decide what our children need to be learning. Thinking that we can fill 13 years of their lives with standards, outcome, etc. is the height of arrogance. There are certainly basics, fundamentals of literacy and the knowledge that gives us all a common context, but beyond that, our children need to be developing and practicing their own personal skills of learning. - dfw
MikeV
Should coding be taught in schools?
27 Aug 2013 - 12:11:39
That's a great question and a very prominent conversation in the edtech community. My feeling is that they should learn to code, but not like we traditionally teach grammar. We should present them with a sandbox environment where they learn to make computers do interesting things by learning and building with code. It's not for the sake of making them programmers, but to making them thinkers.
My son majored in computer sicence for one year, but hated it, because they were teaching programming the same way that I was taught grammar, that it's all about syntax. I love to program because I'm self-taught. I think of something I want to computer to do for me, and then find and assemble the commands, like building blocks, that make it happen. - dfw
Oz
Skilled at learning to learn
27 Aug 2013 - 12:12:01
Principaldd
Should a passion for coding be a PLO?
27 Aug 2013 - 12:12:25
Not sure what PLO is. It's not a passion for coding, its a passion for building. Some will not find that coding is their way, and may, instead, prefer carpentry tools, or writing, or... The passion should be for building something that is of value. - dfw
Bill
Need to read Dan Pink
27 Aug 2013 - 12:15:06
Read Drive. It's a fascinating book. It seems that the carrot-stick motivation that we've used for decades simply doesn't work. What works is, and no surprises here...
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose - dfw
Greg L
I have the Daniel Pink Drive book - who wants it?
27 Aug 2013 - 12:15:46
That's the one! - dfw
MikeV
Coding= math + physics + language + problem solving. Not bad...
27 Aug 2013 - 12:16:01
Interestingly, this was our focus during the earliest years of computers in the classroom, helping students develop higher order skills and learn to use math as a language, through programming. Logo was the first one, and is still alive and well. If you want to learn more, read Mind.. by Seymore Pappert. It's a little thick, but says a lot. He's been called the father of educational technology. - dfw
Shannon
Hurrah for the arts!!!
27 Aug 2013 - 12:17:24
Hurrah! It's about communication. It's just as important as math and science, for the same reasons. - dfw
Karen
They are not human; they are smart and connected ;)
27 Aug 2013 - 12:19:31
They are different. They've grown up in a different information environment and have helped to invent the culture of that environment. - dfw
Karen
@greg. I do pls
27 Aug 2013 - 12:19:51
Bill
Our students are different. They are not us.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:20:20
Principaldd
Perfect ... That's the end of the class reunion!
27 Aug 2013 - 12:22:01
Actually not. My last class reunion (40 years) was so different, because so many of us had re-discovered each other via Facebook. Another element of this is students who move around. I've worked with a number of international schools, that serve the children of diplomates, corporate workers, etc. It has meant so much that these children can continue to enjoy the friendships that they develop and engage in more friendship-making because they know that they won't end when their father or mother gets posted to another embassy. - dfw
Greg L
@Karen - I'll send it through school mail. Sorry - not an e-book
27 Aug 2013 - 12:23:13
MikeV
I like that - let the kids use their tentacles.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:24:07
But we have to figure out how to "..channel curriculum through those tentacles." I think that one thing we need to do is reflect on how we use our own tentacles to learn, and purposefully cultivate our tentacles (personal networks) for learning. I can't tell you how much mobile technologies (iPhone/iPad) have excellerating my own learning. That I take my window on the world around with me enables me to constantly adapt. Of course, adapting is becoming tiring to me. Speaking at these new year kickoffs, and seeing all you young teachers makes me thankful that I'm not starting from scratch, that I'm nearing retirement. You have a great adventure ahead of you. My adventure is spinning down. - dfw
Shannon
It's not about teaching them to use technology, it's about becoming part of the conversation.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:25:49
Yes! One of the most revelatory conversations I've overheard was one that my son was having with his geekie high school friends about a video game they'd been playing. It was the conversation that Vera B. Hoyle, my senior english teacher had tried to get us to have about Shakespeare. They're having those conversations. We need to join them. What's promising is that we (teachers) are starting to play those same games. - dfw
Nathan
Information is a raw material for students
27 Aug 2013 - 12:27:33
My first book was called, "Raw Materials for the Mind," and was about working information. - dfw
MikeV
@nathan this is worth watching http://everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/
27 Aug 2013 - 12:33:08
It's on my list. Thanks! Lawerence Lessig, a law professor, has written a lot about remix culture and copyright. He says that copyright laws are way out of date. - dfw
Bill
Disciplines are interconnected. So should our curriculum
27 Aug 2013 - 12:35:48
Bingo! - dfw
Shannon
Who's truth? That is the question.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:37:22
It's the truth of the goal. Does the information help you accomplish your goal within an ethical context. - dfw
Principaldd
Its an integrated/interconnected world ... Learning needs to be
27 Aug 2013 - 12:37:26
Treena
FaceTime with a partner across the room?
27 Aug 2013 - 12:37:51
Kirsten
THE DEBATE OF THOSE WHO ARE CONNECTED AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT..SOMETIMES DUE TO FAMILY BUDGETS
27 Aug 2013 - 12:43:31
Yes! But it is because your country and mine are WAY to much under the control of the telcos. There are several countries that have made high speed Internet available to all citizens. Finland recently declared high speed Internet to be a legal-right to all citizens, because they realized it was in their self interest for all to be connected to today's prevailing information landscape.
The legislature of my own state recently passed a law that prevents towns from creating their own Internet service. It happened when one down created one that gave its citizens 10 times the speed as neighboring towns for lower monthly fees. AT&T and Time Warner didn't like that and contributed more than a million dollars in campaign moneys to get the law written. - dfw
Shannon
I agree. Richer families have more technology.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:46:36
We've decided that all citizens should learn to write, not use the wealthy ones. If more and more of the information is networked and digital and exclusively networked and digital, then what's the point of being able to read, if you can't access the text. For the same reason that all children should learn to ready, all children and citizens should have access to the information. It's a national problem. - dfw
Tracy
So we are about asking the right questions.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:46:59
Marilyn
Are we responsive or reactive?
27 Aug 2013 - 12:47:27
What a good question. In the context of what I'm talking about, I would say that the distinction is that for today's children a learning experience that responds to their learning is better than one where they are waiting for someone on the outside (teacher) is reacting. Of course that doesn't mean that we should never react to them. But we need to understand and work toward facilitating experiences that are responsive. - dfw
Greg L
Facts are free ... Putting info into knowledge is where we add value
27 Aug 2013 - 12:48:20
Yep! - dfw
Marilyn
Learning to ask the question is critical
27 Aug 2013 - 12:48:40
Yep! Yet we teaching them to answer questions, not ask them. - dfw
Bill
We need to teach our kids how to learn
27 Aug 2013 - 12:48:58
We need to help them learn to learn. It's a personal endeavor. We all have our own techniques and tricks. In a time of rapid change its not what we bring that the same as everyone else that brings value. It's what we bring that different, how we think solve problems that's different. Another reason why high-stakes standardized testing is so harmful. - dfw
Kim
Back channel our classes & groups
27 Aug 2013 - 12:49:20
Shannon
I just read something the other day that said loneliness has increased since social networking. We still need to have real conversation.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:50:32
Yes. I think it's a human need, to have the electricity of eye contact. But I wonder, how were they measuring loneliness. - dfw
Shannon
Philosophy. Bring it back.
27 Aug 2013 - 12:53:44
You know what I'd bring back? Rhetoric, the art of making logical argument. Sometimes the only thing we have to determine if information is true is logic. - dfw
Bill
Good students are not necessarily good learners
27 Aug 2013 - 12:58:59
They're good at being taught. I think that one reason I'm a "good learner," is that I have some sever hearing problems and also a particular flavor if A.D.D. that causes met to think very randomly. Get nothing out of class. So I'd have to take the textbook home and figure it out. - dfw
Tracy
Hurray for the practical arts!!!
27 Aug 2013 - 13:04:24
Kere
We build and break stuff everyday in kindergarten
27 Aug 2013 - 13:04:28
Hurrah for building and breaking. - dfw
MikeV
Libraries should have "maker-spaces"
27 Aug 2013 - 13:04:45
There is a philosophy of education called Reggio Emilia, that originated in Italy right after World War II. Classes are situated like pods around a common space that is like a studio or workshop. Children are encouraged to spend time tinkering in there. - dfw
Mick
Reminds me of PDP. Every question was answered, "Well what do you think?" Need students to find answers on their own without annoying them.
27 Aug 2013 - 13:06:30
..and give them permission to invent them. - dfw
Marilyn
I like this guy...promote those decoding and validatin
27 Aug 2013 - 13:44:53
It's a critical part of being literate. - dfw
Marilyn
Skills!
27 Aug 2013 - 13:45:14
Karen
Settle a bet? Where is your temple photo from?
27 Aug 2013 - 13:52:41
Karen
'Numbers can tell a sorry ... '
27 Aug 2013 - 13:56:20
It's what math does. It helps numbers to tell their story. - dfw
MikeV
He's an expert at making technologies interact with each other
27 Aug 2013 - 13:56:37
pkinghorn
Another day has passed and I still haven't used algebra
27 Aug 2013 - 13:57:19
I didn't tell you how, at the end of my first afternoon of of teaching myself programming (the computers our school got were without software) I got on my knees and thanked every algebra teacher I'd ever had. Algebra is the language for making numbers behave the way you need them to, to make the computer perform the way you need it to. - dfw
Principaldd
Download times are directly correlated to teenager bio rhythms ...
27 Aug 2013 - 13:58:00
:-) - dfw
Principaldd
where's the library of links on the main site?
27 Aug 2013 - 13:58:07
Principaldd
@pking ... If bought the 8 pack ... You were using algebra
27 Aug 2013 - 13:58:51
Keri
I'm wondering if you can post the links for the music site and others?
27 Aug 2013 - 14:05:29
They are in the Online handouts. For making the music, I was using Intuim. But today I use Logic, or an app on my iPad called Music Studio. - dfw
Shannon
Here here!!!
27 Aug 2013 - 14:19:33
David
Main site is http://landmark-project.com
27 Aug 2013 - 14:31:30
Greg L
Pecha Kucha = 20 slides for 20 seconds each with limited text. Google it
27 Aug 2013 - 14:42:02
It's a cool thing to watch - an art form. - dfw
Greg L
Pecha Kucha -> 20 images not 20 slides of text
27 Aug 2013 - 14:51:09
Greg L
need a mike on people to hear their ideas
27 Aug 2013 - 14:55:51
Greg L
Collaboration between students & teachers us key
27 Aug 2013 - 16:49:24
Greg L
Collaboration between students & teachers is key
27 Aug 2013 - 16:49:42
Thanks so much for participating and for adding to my learning. - dfw