Jan
26
Written by:
Dan Maas
1/26/2008
On Friday, I participated in a parade of adult guest bloggers who discussed Dan Pink's book "A Whole New Mind" with students at Arapahoe High School...
Web 2.0 tools that allow people to access and author information unleashes a new brand of thought and investigation at Arapahoe High School. The Langauage Arts department and the school's technology director, Karl Fisch, have been developing live blogging as an adaptation to the fishbowl writing technique. What fascinated me when I first saw this in action last year was how so many simultaneous conversations erupt when every student has a laptop and the teacher makes use of a blog.
On Friday, I revisited the same classrooom teachers Anne Smith and Maura Moritz to participate in live blogging about Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. I was joined by several members of our Board of Education (thanks to Lucie Stanish and Renee Howell for joining in) as well as several other bloggers and educators from around the country. Indeed, Anne and Maura will bring people from around the world including Will Richardson and Dan Pink. Karl was furiously setting up audio and video feeds using Mebeam to enable the remote participants to see and hear the verbal conversation that happens in class. The extra effort Karl put in to bring in these remote bloggers was a special treat for the students. So while the effort for the video/audio did not seem sustainable, the live blogging was so easy that the teachers reported feeling almost guilty.
Truly, these students and their teachers are embracing the power of web 2.0 and are setting a model for learners everywhere. I wonder what the long term implications of this will have for these students? Will this effort demonstrate to students that their horizons are unlimited today? Will they master the art of publishing to the world? Will they come to expect a higher level of personal interactivty with media than any prior generation? Or is this just a passing fancy... I doubt it.
1 comment(s) so far...
Re: When every student has a voice
Dan,
One area that comes to mind is a sudent voice for the vocational and not the professional. With the on-going recession the techno-skills of students need to be defined and refined. As I look at the schools, computer coach, technology integration, micro-tech and server tech and the downsizing or resizing of small businesses, what will be on the transcript of a student based on technology skills to fit Governor Ritter's reforms to show practical skills and the using of those skills to solve problems? Yes, like novice and casual skills; newbie skills, and techie skills.
You could easily say leave that up to the community colleges. Now some bad news: some states are shutting down their student loan programs. When this happens we can see that teachers in terms of applying technology may find themselves as part of continuing education to keep up with an energy crisis, glogalization and tele-work as well as on-line learning. Remember higher ed funding in Coloardo is lower than K-12 funding. Hence K-12 pushed by the Legislators for continuing education.
Even Govenor Ritter wants a Councelor Corps. How many such counselors in LPS are up to the techno-guidance I speak of? LPS has a better start than most districts in Colorado. I bring this up know so there is a little time to dialogue on this. And their are folks in LPS who have a great appreciiation for vocational when times are hard.
By Charles Wimber on
3/8/2008
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