Fun & Exciting Stuff

I think this post is very important to educators.

“Why do we have to write an essay?”

Ans: Well, these types of essays will be on the final exam, so these are preparation of a sort for the Regents exam.

Will you be asked to recite the cultural changes of the 1920’s in some future job interview? Maybe if it is for a job as “flag pole sitter” down at the “Chaplin & Capone’s Restaurant – Where silence is our business!” Probably not.

I don’t know that there is a correct answer to that question. I think there is a certain level of correctness, for lack of a better word, to my answer. In the immediate future, the final exam carries a certain weight. I can’t change the situation in 3 months, so they are going to have to answer an essay like that.

But I have been having an ongoing conversation with another teacher about how in “teacher” – as we know it will be obsolete within our lifetimes. From the perspective of a student, if, and that is a big “if” knowing some of the students I know, I wanted to learn about the US Civil War, where would I go for information? Would I cycle back through all the worksheets Mr. Potter handed out to me? Go talk to my history teacher? Or would I go here, here, here, here, or here. And those are just web pages. What about blogs, wikis, Twitter-ing a historical expert, etc. etc. And this is a five second Google search + Wikipedia. I could find a good overall gist of the situation pretty quickly.

I go into used book stores when I have time + cash. I think it is a national requirement that they have a copy of American Caesar. My thinking is always that I should buy it. It is something that I am interested in, but I don’t need to be an expert on it and have the background knowledge and be able to connect to the greater concept of WWII. But then one night I came home and did this. More information than I could possibly want. Most of it reliable, but enough that is that I can get a good overall picture of it.

I don’t know that you could become an engineer or a doctor based off of reading Wikipedia, but if you are looking for general information/content, then you could definitely use sources like those.

The skill of writing/communicating obviously has a level of importance. The ability to organize information has another level of importance. But content knowledge has been changing.

Our role as teacher has to adapt to today’s knowledge-level. I don’t know what that is yet, but it is getting late.

This looks very interesting and straight forward.

Download Video: Posted by teacherhacks at TeacherTube.com.

I am on a committee that deals with 21st Century learning skills. We have a plan in which the students are going to visit other local schools that have advanced farther than us down the 21st century learning skills path. We have (finally) come to the conclusion that we can only go to 3 local schools. The main problem at this juncture is transportation. We are coming to the end of the school year and the $ is not there for us to get 2 buses and go all over the county.

Now, I am thinking that since we are teaching 21CLS, there has to be a technological way to overcome this obstacle. Maybe a face-to-face with admin./teachers/students from other schools is the”old way” of doing things and since we are trying to practice what we preach, there might be a better way to do it. I brought up the dreaded Facebook/MySpace combo as a way to overcome this, but it was immediately shot down. YouTube is blocked by BESS. TeacherTube is blocked by BESS. Most wikis are blocked by BESS. Most blogs are blocked by BESS. Yes, we can unblock the filter, but we are trying to teach 21CLS, using 20th Century technology.

And we aren’t even on to some of the more complicated issues yet.

Our recent home building project at school made the paper and got some good press. Check it out for another perspective on the whole sh-bang.

There’s an oil shock going on. It started April 30, 2007. The world oil supply is falling short of demand – by 1.5% at first, but it’s expected to increase to 3% or more throughout 2007.This is a real-life simulation that uses all sorts of Web 2.0 resources.

World Without Oil.

I think feed readers are underrated. The above showed up in my Google Reader ™ and I think it is a great idea for a Web 2.0 project that will have both a real world impact and demonstrate new uses of technology. This would be a great simulation for school. Here is a great example of how they are using new technology tools to get the message out there.

What is going on here?

WORLD WITHOUT OIL is an alternate reality event, a serious game for the public good.

It invites everyone to help simulate a global oil shock. People participate by contributing original online stories, created as though the oil shock were really happening.

The game’s masters rank the participants (“players”) according to their contributions to our realistic portrayal of the oil shock. The game also places value on player-created communities, collaborative stories, and collective efforts.

Each contribution helps the game arrive at a larger truth. No team of experts knows better than a given individual what effect an oil shock would have upon that individual’s life, or what action he or she will take to cope. Personal reactions to our simulated oil shock, placed in context with many other points of view, will help us all realize what’s at stake in our oil-fired culture.