I was listening to CBC Radio this morning on the way to work. The host was talking about a daycare operator who was making some radical shifts (at least for our province) in operations (evening hours, Saturdays, etc.).

The facility operator was explaining that she was also looking to alleviate some of the concerns and trepidations of newer parents about their children’s daily activities by installing webcams in her facility – allowing parents to “tune in” to the goings-on in the daycare at any point during the day.

It brought me back to David Warlick‘s opening to his book Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century, where he provides us with a glimpse to one possible vision of a classroom several years from now. This classroom is very connected – students with students, students and teachers and, yes, even parents / others with students and teachers. He illustrates how students might be connected to “experts” in the community or elsewhere and how parents can be involved in the daily life of the school through connections via technology.

It left me wondering…just how far away can we be from really connecting our classrooms to the outside world? Until now they have been fairly insular places, but technology has changed the possibilities. Now the barriers are primarily issues of privacy, teacher reluctance and student safety.

I recently had a meeting with a teaching team and a parent who is taking her daughter to New Zealand after Christmas for three months. The intent is to use technology to maintain her connection with her current class. She will connect using the class wikis and blogs (standard daily tools), some asynchronous podcasting of classes and weekly webchat connections with her classmates. This will be done in a secure site.  The intent here is that she won’t enroll in a school there…but remain an active participant in her own class.

I asked the team how they felt about having their classes recorded…the group response was that they will likely be nervous at first, but it would just become a part of what they do quickly.

Shift is happening. Like the daycare, just how ready are we to knock down our classroom walls, open ourselves to the world, and flatten the terrain?

Is it just a matter of time?

tags: technology, education, learning, warlick, whipple

I have to admit, I prefer the Mac platform. While our schools 1:1 program is PC based, I continue to use my old Mac G4 laptop as my primary computer on a day to day basis.

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I love the Mac. It is intuitive, powerful, smart. I am not constantly loading drivers and pretty much any peripheral that I add works! The iLife suite is wonderful and provides me with lots of powerful tools that I can use with little practice or exploration. I think the commercials says it all.

On top of that, there are many more open source applications being made for the Mac than ever before. They add to the simple power of the platform. For a wonderful list of free Mac software check out the Free Mac Classroom. It rocks!

Wanna see more? Check out the whole series of Mac ads…

tags: apple, technology, education, learning

I was making a brief presentation to a group of teachers the other day, just trying to implant some seeds of ideas that I will take time to water and nurture later. It was more a time to have five minutes to start some conversations about the power of technology to shift the ideas and mechanics of learning in the 21st century.

Many teachers continue to hold onto their old stories of education. They want to teach, and be taught, the way they were taught 20 years ago. My role is to try and create 21st century learners of teachers, hoping they will shift their learning environments to reflect the skills our students will need as global citizens of the future. The skills of assessment, collaboration and developing personal learning communities.

One teacher asked me “where do you (I) learn?” I immediately jumped on blogs, both my own and others. maintaining this blog is not just an exercise to share my knowledge, but by writing I am able to reflect and crystallize my own understandings.

In addition, by reading (and commenting on) others blogs (made easy by an RSS aggregator), I can follow, share and reflect on others ideas and conversations. The links you see to the left – “My Reading List” – are a few of the blogs I follow daily. Add to that a few names I haven’t added yet, plus some random, occassional meanderings into the edublogosphere and I have a digital personal learning community. I can “talk” to David Warlick, Clay Burell or Jeff Utech and, through the wonder of cyberspace, can pick the brains of the most innovative thinkers in the world. No longer does geography or circumstance have to isolate us.

In addition, by reading several blogs from different perspectives I am able to build connections and understandings from information that I would not be able to access without technology. This is what we need to learn, and help our kids to learn.

Where to start? Must-reads are David Warlick and Will Richardson – the two evangelists of educational technology. Feel free to read my list and develop your own. Or browse Edutopia’s Edublogs We Love: Top Ten Stops for Internet Interaction for some other ideas (some are also on my list).

Get an RSS feeder (I use Netvibes) and spend 15 minutes a day. It’s the best Professional Development you’ll ever find.

Technorati Tags: education technology warlick will richardson utecht burell whipple

Just received this via email…thought I would pass it along…:)

The River City Project, a not for profit organization, is actively looking for schools to pilot a new game they have created called River City.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the River city Project, has developed an interactive computer simulation game for middle grades science students to learn disease transmission and scientific method. River City has the look and feel of a videogame but contains content developed from National Science Education Standards, National Educational Technology Standards, and 21st Century Skills.

Access to the simulation, curricular materials, professional development, and just-in-time assistance are provided free of charge to schools. The current grant is exploring issues of scale, bringing River City to diverse schools across the United States and abroad, and the River city Project is always looking to collaborate with like-minded educators.

Date And Time: Immediately! If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the new game and piloting it, please contact the River City research team immediately for more information.

Location: Visit the River City Project website for more information.

Cost: No cost

How to Register: on website – As you explore their website, the River City Project research team invites you to send them an email rivercity.support@gmail.com with questions, comments or to find out how to get involved.

tags: river city project, technology, education, learning

With the departure of our former VP (and one of my personal friends and mentors), Gary Gallant – famous for the Antarctic expedition / student collaborative project a few years back – to another school, I have kind of inherited the duties of webmaster for our school website. It is a great site that includes a school blog embedded in the front page, allowing administrators to keep the page current with easy postings through Google’s blogger service.

As I have been picking at updating the staff directory, team news/homework blogs, etc. over the past week I have been consulting with admin to get their ideas. One of the links on the page – entitled “Contact NMS” – opens an email that is sent to a contact person within the school. It used to be Gary. I dropped by the Principal’s office to see where he wanted this to be sent. I figured it should go to the school secretary, but admin was worried about her workload already.

One of the suggestions was to simply can the link. It was argued that parents can come to the school or call if they want information. I quickly pointed out that this was a valuable link, a portal to our school, similar to our front door. In fact, many parents find it difficult to get to the school at all, and given the limited times during the day that our phones are answered this also hinders communication.

With new types of work and crazy schedules, many parents only find time to contact the school later in the evening. I can tell you, the phone won’t be answered and the doors will be locked.

Web-based communication will prove to be an ever-increasing component of our links with our community. The busier, the better. It just proves that it is needed and it works.

To their credit, admin quickly “got it” and the link remained. Uncertain about how much traffic came through this “door”, I was asked to be the virtual bellhop for now. I’ll be monitoring traffic and hopefully, if we can work it into her workplan, the secretary will take it over shortly. In the meantime, virtual visitors to Nasis Middle will be greeted by this old guy!

“May I help you?”

tags: whipple, technology, education, school

Photo credit: whip62 (me); Eliot School, Boston; posted at flickr.com