How do we capture the spirit of open, networked and participatory communities in our learning? 

As with any solution and any goal we need to develop a change in attitude. Education has classically been a very individualistic institution.

Photo Credit: naraekim0801 via Compfight cc

Perhaps you've also had that sinking feeling when you realize an assignment is going to be a group project. Students learn that they are responsible for their our education alone and do not have a responsibility to fellow learners. This is confirmed and reconfirmed throughout the education process. The first step to open learning is realizing that, in building participatory communities, we are teaching children something they have been taught implicitly not to do. This is a shame because in the words of Alan November:








 "I think we've underestimated
 kids to kids" (teaching). 











One of the greatest practical things we can do for fostering community learning is to implement new technology in education. Some technologies are better than others for this but, where we often perceive the internet and technology leading to disconnection outside the classroom, it has had the opposite effect when harnessed in the classroom.

One piece of technology I found out about today is Padlet. It is a public wall that the whole class can post on. You can project the program on a class wall or use it on a smart board. Students can write their ideas and post videos. One neat thing about Padlet is that a student can post anonymously. A quiet student who doesn't like speaking up is able to be connected to the class where they wouldn't have been.

Social media no longer has to be a distraction. Teachers can project live tweet sessions during class. #Science102014 can  be the hashtag that facilitates questions and comments during instruction.

Flipgram can be a way to open up communication in the classroom. Making a video with a webcam in the student's home is, for many, more comfortable than speaking up in class. It's tools like this that will ensure it's not just the extroverts who are being heard.

There are so many amazing technologies that are free and easy to learn and implement. This is one easy way to create an open, socially networked community.

Introduction To My Learning Assignment For ECMP355

My major assignment for my ECMP355 class is to learn something I've always wanted to learn using internet technology. Expect more video posts soon

TOP 3 BLOGS THE FEEDLY FED ME

The world of blogs has always been a distant one to me. I've read blogs but in my daily life the only ones that reach me are hot topic blogs that my friends post on social media to start Facebook wars over highly political topics.

Feedly is an amazing tool for sifting through the world of blogs to find what you actually want to read. It works in much the same way YouTube or Twitter does, allowing you to search for specific blogs or types of blogs (using hashtags) or you can go into human-curated topic zones.

I went into the education topic area and used #edtech, #education and #teaching to find some amazing blogs I would not have found otherwise.

One thing I really like about Feedly is that it is a cross-blogsite website, so I can get blogs from Wordpress, Blogger and individual websites.

The top three favourite blogs I discovered were:

3. Dy/Dan-- Dan Meyer is a Math teacher whose approach to teaching is why I love his blog. Not only is his blog practically helpful for math teachers, his student-centric approach to teaching is refreshing and evident in everything he writes. One example of this is his recent post on Sports themed Math  problems.

2.Mind Shift-- This blog is run by two radio stations in the States' KQED and NPR. This isn't the first place I thought I would find a good education blog. This blog is a little different because the articles are not written from personal experience. What I like about it is they curate an idea from a broad subject we wouldn't necessarily immediately pair with education. Then they ask what the educational implications are for that idea. A good example of this is a TED video they posted recently on how humans prefer repetitive patterns in music (and maybe in everything else).

1.Educational Technology and Mobile Learning: Yes, they need a flashier name but this blog I think will be one of the most practically helpful blogs of my career as a teacher. It not only keeps you updated on new technology. It also includes all aspects of learning theory. For instance their newest blog is about a program for project based learning. The program is an online checklist. Like I said, practical.

Hello ECMP355. My name is dustan.

My name is Dustan Hlady. I am in my second year of middle years. I am excited to learn about how technology can enhance learning. I think that technology, if used with the right goals in mind, can have a transformative impact on a student's learning life. Teaching students through technology will not only help their learning in a wide variety of subjects, it will help them navigate the technology itself. 

When I am not trying to pass my classes, I spend time with my family in Moose Jaw. My beautiful wife's name is Carrie and my two sons are Reese and Cohen.

I also like to write short fiction in my spare time. I have been published in a few online magazines but nothing in print yet. I am starting a small print company that sells short stories in the form of zines. The website is launching at the end of the month.  

AN OLD MAN AT 33: I WAS AN INTERNETLESS TEENAGER (social life in the internet age)

I still remember when the internet came.  A teacher told us about it in my grade twelve year. It wasn't even called the internet yet. It was called the world wide web and Mr. Mc Harahan has to actually use the metaphor of a spider web so we could understand what he was talking about.

At the time, I wrote letters to friends who didn't live in my town. Phones were used for talking to people and no one experienced any social anxiety from talking on the phone unless you were talking with someone of the opposite sex whom you found attractive.

My friends and I had physical photo albums that we shared with each other whenever someone came over to our home and we pointed out each picture and shared the memories attached to them. The only person who was trying to be a professional photographer was a fellow who had a studio on Main Street. The photos my friends and I took were not of a high quality and they weren't meant to be aesthetically impressive. Their purpose was merely to facilitate positive memories of our experiences and to share those experiences with others. When the film in my camera filled up I took it to the drug store and waited for a few weeks while they shipped it off to their development center and sent it back.  The photos cost .75 cents each and some were bound to be throw-aways, pictures taken when I dropped my camera.

When I liked a girl I had to talk to her face to face or (more likely) not talk to her at all. If you liked someone, eventually it would get to them through people talking about it. If the liking was well-received they would let you know via the intersecting friend circles playing telephone. As your relationship developed there were only two avenues through which to interact: the telephone and in person. There was no communication with people in your town that did not include your voice.

I don't remember anyone ever cancelling plans. If your friends planned to meet, they showed up if for no other reason than because there was no way to contact you if you weren't at home.

I watched a lot of TV and most of the shows weren't very good. The televisions themselves were large bulky, usually wooden objects with fake drawers under the screen (never understood that). You couldn't take your TV anywhere (bathroom included). The television was limited to one or two rooms in a house. (sometimes three). I remember my principal had a television in the kitchen. People would say they had a "TV problem".

I say all this to say that, because of technology's rate of expansion, I'm talking like my grandfather used to talk to me when he was in his 70's, telling me about going to the movie house for 10 cents and riding a horse to school. I don't think we can deny that the internet has changed how we view our lives, how we recall our memories, how we fall in love, and how we interact with our friends. It also affects how we perceive the purpose for these relationships. It has affected how we talk and treat each other.

These three videos have made specific negative or positive judgements of the internet.

LOOK UP: (the internet has had a negative effect on our social life.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY

LOOK DOWN: (the internet is amazing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwKpOCFiDcI

TWITTER IN 60 SECONDS: (Twitter is amazing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYz9M70KVR0

Each of these videos make claims about the internet that are true. The dawning of the internet has dulled our social skills (Look Up). There are a lot of amazing aspects of the internet and how much we are mastered by technology is within the control of the person using it (Look Down). Internet technology has an amazing way of connecting us professionally and allowing us to share helpful information in our careers (Twitter in 60 seconds).

There are a lot of words in Look Up and Look Down but really they both have simple messages: the internet is bad socially (Look Up) and the internet is good. These are both very narrow-minded approaches to an incredibly vast social experiment.

If there's a single common lesson I can extract from the truths in each video it is that we have a choice. We have a choice to reject or accept how technology makes our lives better or worse. We can decide which is better, a phone call or a text, a Twitter hashtag or a binder of old resources, an online classroom or a traditional one.

This is a difficult task for those born or growing up since the dawn of the internet world. When something becomes the norm, it's more difficult to realize that you have a choice and sometimes you have to go against the current to support your choices.

I fear that technology has changed how we perceive "a better life". I fear that, since technology always claims to make our life easier (not better), for many a better life will be measured by ease. In turn our social decisions have the potential to become a path of least resistance which isn't necessarily a recipe for deep, long-lasting, worthwhile relationships.

I am encouraged by my Technology in Education class. There seems to be an understanding that internet technology is a tool and part of the skill in being a teacher is picking the right tool for the right job. If the internet is a hammer, perhaps teaching is a nail and social life is a screw.

Anyway, I've got to go. Grandpa needs help programming the VCR.