When Will talks about each student needing to learn how to self-direct their own learning, I thought about the reading in Warlick where he addresses the issue of using copyrighted music and then being force to go back and learn how to add music to his presentations without using someone else's music. In the same way, our children need to learn how to do these same things - direct their own learning. I am sure that having to go into the computer and figure out how to make music to add to a presentation was a greater learning experience than if he had sat in a classroom somewhere and had someone spoon-feed the information to him.

Will also talks about getting over the idea that we, as teachers, are the sole content experts in the classroom. With the web our students now have so many more areas to choose from - each website directing them to many more websites and much more information than we could ever fit into a lifetime, let alone a school year. The information they get from this source will be the information that will help them become part of the "Information Age where the raw material is information". Warlick says that we need to teach our children to build with information, and we cannot do that if we continue to think of ourselves as the sole content experts within our classroom.

Also, Will talks about getting past the idea that we know more than our students - nothing could be further from the truth, especially when I look at the information out there - imovies, podcasts, etc. Kids know how to access the information, and that makes them smarter than I will ever be. It also puts them in the driver's seat when it comes to the new "information-driven future" where - as Warlick puts it - "what our children know will be less important than what they can do with it". I think most kids are already two arms and one leg up on most of us as teachers, or soon-t0-be teachers, when it comes to knowing what to do with the information that is available to them on the web.

Darlene

I was just reading a post that Kaitlin had put up on her blog on 2/7, and she quoted from a book she had read. When I was reading that something hit me - like being struck full speed by a mack truck (not that I have ever had that experience, thank heavens). I don't have to know everything about everything to be a teacher. My students and I can learn together - even about the digital world - and I think that would be part of the fun. I have been in a fog lately and I guess I have been missing the fact that kids love knowing more then their teachers know, and teaching me as we explore this digital world together is something that the kids will probably find exciting. A light bulb moment for me. I have spent so much time worrying about all that I don't know that I have lost sight of the fact that learning can be a two-way process. I can learn as my students learn. How much fun will it be to take this journey together - all of a sudden I'm not so scared by all of this. I still don't know anything about it, but maybe that's not so horrible after all.

Just thought I'd share my "defining moment".

Darlene

I just wanted to talk about our group meeting last Wednesday night for a minute. We are doing a podcast, and our group - Jon, Charity, Megan and myself - met in the library for over an hour before class and worked on our podcast. It was great and yet I still felt terribly inadequate. Everyone seemed to have some idea what they were doing, but I was totally lost. Everytime I tackle the latest technology I feel overwhelmed. I know that I have said that often, but I just want to make sure everyone is listening to me. I want to know how to do all of these things - really I do!!! It's just that I feel like I'll never quite "get it". So, along that line, I wonder how many of the kids in schools today - if any - might feel the same way that I'm feeling. Is it possible that some kids don't have a clue? Or is everyone technology savvy except for those of us who are going to be teaching someday soon?

I guess I was wondering how well I am going to be prepared for Generation M with only one technology course - unless you want to add the Photoshop course I took to my credentials. I don't even have an IM account or an ipod or even a digital camera. I feel like I'm in the dark ages. Are there kids out there in our schools today who are equally in the dark?

Darlene

Maybe if I do this correctly I can copy the post that I made to Will's blog. If all goes well, it should follow this:

February 12th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I can certainly sympathize with the idea that we need to unlearn that everyone can, and should, learn at the same pace. I have four children, two of whom probably learned at the same pace as everyone else, and two of whom were absolutely bored to tears at the pace of learning in their classroom.
As a non-traditional student who has returned to school and is studying Adolescent English Education, I understand the need to unlearn many things that we have traditionally thought were important in teaching our students. Maybe the fact that I am older, puts me in an even greater position to understand that today’s classroom is nothing like the classroom that I was part of many years ago. I think that’s both a good thing and a scary thing. I just blogged on my own blog for a class I am taking at SUNY Cortland that the thought of my students knowing more than I do is very scary to me. How can I teach students who are already way past me?
The other thing you mentioned was not putting up roadblocks for students to use the sites and tools that they need to learn. I think sometimes we fear the “bad” things that our students can access so much that we keep them from all of the good things as well.

I was watching the "world news" night before last and they had an interesting discussion about one of the presidential candidates - I believe it was Edwards - who had put some bloggers to work on his staff to conduct surveys and get information concerning his upcoming bid for the presidency. They said that amid the controversial issue of using these bloggers and the internet to conduct their survey, that Edwards was so impressed with the work that they had done that he plans to keep them on his staff throughout the entire time that he is running for office.

I thought this was an exciting application of something that all too often we think takes up too much of our time. Who would have thought that blogging could have such an exciting application? I guess that blogging is something that everyone should know how to do and something that all of us need to take an active role in. I wonder if our schools would change their opinions about blog sites if they knew that they had such potential - perhaps changing the course of our country. It certainly gives us something to ponder and consider while we are blogging for our class.

I want to try and find this blog site when I get a moment - does anyone out there have any idea where I might look? Maybe someone has even seen the blog site itself. Let me know.

Darlene

I watched the YouTube Video, and I must say that my lack of technology experience makes it difficult for me to even understand some of the things that we are doing in this class. I semi-understand that with the Digital world that form and content can be separated. However, I guess I don't really understand what that means in regard to using html and the other things that the video talked about. Isn't html part of the digital process - isn't that the address that we had to make so that people could find our blog sites?

Maybe someone can respond to this blog and explain to me what all of this means. I understand the need to be savvy when it comes to all of the new technology that is available to us and to teach in a way that takes into account the new ways that generation M is accustomed to dealing with in regards to learning. However, I question how I can do that as a teacher when I am lost when it comes to all of this. Why are we not required to take more classes to help us learn all that we are being asked to use in our classrooms as teachers? I don't see how we can simply assume that everyone knows how to use all of these tools, and can, therefore, incorporate them into their classrooms.

Can anyone lend some insight? I want to be able to teach in a way that captures the interest and creativity of all of my future students, but how can I do that when I don't understand all of the tools at my disposal - in short, how can I teach students that are so much smarter than I am?
I guess I'm about to be one of those resistant people who thinks that maybe the old ways aren't really that awful and maybe there is some value in using chalk and erasers. I guess that I'm just scared that I won't be able to answer their questions or be able to point them in the right direction.

I understand that I can put something together and someone else has instant access to my thoughts and ideas that I have put down on paper and can use them in a different way then I have, but how does that help me in the teaching process?

Darlene

Okay, here goes - one more try to see if I am doing this right. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I am so "non-technology" oriented that it's scary. I am more the eraser and chalk era and will need to be dragged kicking and screaming into this new technology era. Is anyone else as inept at all of this as I am, or am I alone in this process?
Darlene