This blog has a subtitle: Reflections on Education, Technology and Learning

My other less-frequently used blog, ‘Practic-All’, is subtitled, Pragmatic tools and ideas for the classroom. Recently I started using this other blog to provide a digital addition to my Principal’s weekly e-mail update. I did 9 of these to end the year off. I called them Dave’s Digital Magic, (or school teams are the Magicians). Recently I’ve done some thinking about education, technology and learning on my Practic-All blog and so I thought I’d share it here too.

I tried to provide within each ‘digital magic’ a few links including some that promoted web2.0 tools, some that were fun, some that were for different curricular areas… and some that made you think. I put these ‘thinking links’ into a category called, THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM… and I ended each post with one of these.

This was a rather passive way to attempt some influence on my staff. I know some of them ignored the link to my Digital Magic, at least a couple of the staff were very regular visitors, and others waited to hear about something useful before venturing to a link or two. We are talking about tiny ripples rather than tidal waves… but, in keeping with the water theme, even the greatest waterfall begins with a single drop.

So now I put a challenge out to you!

Create your own ripples. Pick one of the nine THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM… and share it with your staff. Or create your own (and please share it with me as well as others).

2. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

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3. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

Clarence Fisher, a brilliant Canadian teacher and blogger, wrote this short paper (4 easy-to-read pages), Changing Literacies (PDF).

Being literate is so much more than being able to understand a written text on a piece of paper.

Here is a quote from his section on Access,

“Fast forward to our society and the ability we now have to drown ourselves in
cheap, disposable information from books, television, the internet, radio,
magazines, video, etc. In our time, one of the major skills of being literate is
the ability to access texts in many different forms from many different sources.
Importantly, it is not about searching for texts, it’s about finding them.”

In this article, Clarence describes why I became a ‘technology guy’. Actually, I don’t really care about technology… I just see how these tools, like wiki’s, can engage students in meaningful ways, where they create and share what they have learned in new, interesting ways.

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4. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

END OF QUARTER RUBRIC

NOTE ON THE USE OF THIS RUBRIC: [Check out the link before reading this!]

“Habits of Mind are the characteristics of what intelligent people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolution(s) to which are not immediately apparent. These behaviors are seldom performed in isolation. Rather, clusters of such behaviors are drawn forth and employed in various situations.”

(Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick: 16 Habits of Mind) The purpose of a rubric when assessing student work is to provide benchmarks of achievement based on these habits which allow a student to understand their current level of mastery and discipline in order to set goals for future drafts, assessments, or marking periods. For as long as possible we will refrain from discussing grades, per se, and focus our discussion on achievement and progress. As long as a student continues to set goals, reflect and evaluate their work and habits, set new goals and modify their work, habits and effort accordingly, they will realize increasing success and achievement as the year progresses. Thus, rather than penalizing a student who begins the year as a believer and ends the year with nothing compared to them by averaging a lower earlier grade with a later higher one, the student is evaluated according to mastery and achievement as demonstrated by their ability and mastery by the end of the year. However, a student who may begin the year with the drive and motivation to knock on heaven’s door, but who then slacks off, loses focus and discipline and ends up wondering what they did to deserve this, will not be boosted from a D to a C because first quarter was strong when it is not reflective of the ability or master he or she consistently demonstrated.

Could you use this rubric or parts of it?

How important are these ‘Habits of the Mind’?

What does this rubric look at compared to what our report cards look at?

Do you ‘average’ previous terms or give ’snapshots’ of where students are now?

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5. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

Academe’s Dirty Little Secret

This blog post is written by Darren Kuropatwa, a brilliant high school Math teacher.

Here is an excerpt:

“You can require your students to demonstrate their understanding of what they are learning by having them apply their knowledge analyzing and evaluating relevant novel situations or problems. Better yet, get them to create content that educates an interested learner and they will automatically incorporate all those levels of engagement while they make their learning sticky. I don’t need to tell you that there’s nothing like having to teach a thing to make you really learn it.

Darren walks the talk! His students will go home and spend hours helping to teach others, when it is there turn to scribe the class notes and post them on a blog for the other students in their class. You can see this in his Scribe Hall of Fame… or if you aren’t into Math, just check out the link to the article.

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6. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

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Video’s are a great teaching tool! One way to start collecting them is to sign up for a free YouTube account. When you are signed in, and you find a video you like, just click ‘Favorite’ and you can collect videos there. Then from any computer you can sign in and find all your favorites.

You can also make Playlists, which lets you create video players, like the one seen on this wiki.

I like this because you can show a number of videos without students seeing the comments under the videos (which can sometimes be very inappropriate for classrooms). You can also use playlists to separate your favorites for different uses.

Start with the simple task of signing up for a free YouTube account, and then I’ll be glad to help you.

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7. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

The purpose of homework…

Is homework an effective practice?

What is it intended to accomplish for student learning?

How do you use it effectively?

How do you deal with homework that isn’t done? Is this the same as others on your team?

What feedback have you had from students? Parents?

What I’ve read recently to get me thinking about homework:

Rethinking Homework by Alfie Kohn

Homework, the tip of the iceberg by Harold Jarche

What do you think?

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8. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

The Three E’s

That brings me to the third E, “Empowerment”.

In this approach students are part of the system itself. They participate in decisions about what is taught, what they would like to learn, and what strategies and tools they would like to use in the learning process. Some may decide to work more independently, some in groups; but they are part of the process of deciding what goes on in their own learning.

I attempted something like this with my ScienceAlive Wiki. I reflected on the project and how I would improve on it here: Wikis in the classroom: a reflection.

As we head into June, what can we do to help students leave our school feeling like they are empowered learners?

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9. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM…

Teaching gifted students compared to teaching every student.

No link for this one, instead, here is a reflection Kari did on having a SHARP, gifted cluster, in her class this year. I thought this was very insightful and also thought about just how much this applied to every student, not just gifted ones!

Top 10 Lessons I Learned Being Involved in SHARP

1. Different is Good: Strategies for differentiation help all students be successful: Gifted, LD, ESL, Non-Categorized.
2. Free Birds Soar: Given the freedom to choose how to present their learning, Gifted students will surpass your, and their own, expectations.
3. Stimulation is Mandatory: Gifted students need to be challenged constantly, or else boredom sets in.
4. Knives and Spoons: Gifted students are not necessarily “gifted” in all areas of the curriculum.
5. Fun and Games: Gifted students are still typical kids- they need to have fun and be accepted by their peers.
6. Be Comfortable with Uncertainty: Gifted students ask lots of questions, but it’s okay if you, the teacher, don’t have all the answers.
7. Stars Are Part of a Larger Constellation: Gifted students need to be recognized for their uniqueness, but still fit in with the rest of the class.
8. Heads May Butt: Your cluster may not always get along or work well together all the time!
9. A Watered Flower Grows: Being involved in SHARP helps you to evolve as a teacher.
10. Hear Me Vent and Brag: Having conversations with other SHARP teachers is valuable and gratifying.

Thanks for your words of wisdom Kari Hotell!

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It’s your turn.

A light look at some actual Grade 4 & 5 test questions and responses at my wife’s school:

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How do you think the Wright brothers felt after the first flight. Why?
Good. They did something good for once.

Do you think jet airplanes have changed our lives for the better? Why?
No. Pollution, hello?

—From Andrew

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How do you think the Wright brothers felt after the first flight. Why?
Maybe like birds, cuz birds fly in the air.

—From Austin

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How do you think you would feel if a cricket kept you awake? Why?
Annoyed. Because there would be a lot because I live near a Hydro line.

—From Bailey

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How do you think the Wright brothers felt after the first flight. Why?
Happy and surprised. Hello?!! They made the first machine that can fly!

—From Ian

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What do you think would happen if all the plants died? Why?
We would not have shade from trees. This affects me because with no shade in the summer, I’d boil.

—From Jessica

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What do you think would happen if all the plants died? Why?
I think that life would come to a halt because plants feed herbivores, herbivores feed carnivores and we feed on herbivores/carnivores. Also, plants give us oxygen.

—From James

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According to this passage, how long does it take for people to fly around the world?
A few hours. Sometime it take longer to get luggage than to fly.

How do you think the Wright brothers felt after the first flight? Why?
They probably thought, “Wow, we have made the first flying machine everyone who ever flys (sic) will thank us.”

Do you think jet airplanes have changed our lives for the better? Why?
Yes, because if you wanted to go to Disneyland for a trip if you took a car it would take a cople (sic) of days. If you flew it only take a cuple (sic) of house and then you don’t have grumpy whinny (sic) kids.

—From Juliana

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How do you think you would feel if a cricket kept you awake? Why?
It would feel weird because there’s a bug in my house.

—From Billy

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How do you think you would feel if a cricket kept you awake? Why?
I would try to find the cricket and bring it outside cause I like to sleep a lot.

—From April

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Someone I know has a child in elementary school. That child came home and complained,

“It’s no fair!”

“What’s not fair?” Her mother asks.

“We were lined up to go to the computer lab and two boys were noisy so we didn’t go.”

“What did you do instead?”

“Extra math sheets.”

And what was done about this? Nothing. No parent complaint or questions of concerns. And so, it happened at least one other time after that. It will probably happen again.

Obviously it is ok that computers are a reward. Obviously Math makes suitable punishment. Obviously I’m being sarcastic.

So often we are measured by what we do, but seldom by what we do not do.

Have you challenged yourself this year? Have you gone to the hard places when you needed to? Have you reflected deeply? Have you written thoughtfully? Have you commented meaningfully? Have you inspired a desire to learn?

Does your inaction reflect who you are or who you’d rather not be?

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“First They Came for the Jews”

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Confession #1: I had planned on calling this post, “Edupunk or edubunk?”

That was before reading this simple, but very powerful post by Jen D. Jones. Now I need to change my approach. My main point sits under Confession #3 below.

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Confession #2: I am not an edupunk… I’ve always been too much of an edunerd to qualify.

That said, I’ve always sat ‘outside the box’ looking in. I’ve always felt like a square peg in a round hole. I’m an ‘A’ student who went through my first university degree with a ‘C+’ average. I handed almost everything in late (and almost always with no marks off)¹. I ignored criteria and wrote what I wanted. Sometimes this was rewarded, most times it was punished. When I was disinterested in an assignment I walked a fine, and I might add brilliant, line next to what would be considered plagiarism, it was a great strategy that got me through the mundaneness of many useless assignments. I crammed for exams, and I’d stay awake for 3 days (usually after the due date) writing an essay. I’d go into the library and end up half an isle away from the resources I needed, reading something ‘unnecessary’… my pre-FireFox tabbing.

On my transcript there is a ‘A’ that I got in a course where I didn’t do an assignment worth 25% of my mark (do the math) and there is also a mark of ‘Zero’ for another course. I appealed the ‘Zero’ and then refused to follow the terms of the accepted appeal. I felt the Appeal Board was scolding me with terms I specifically said would make the timeline for completion difficult for me. I punished myself by refusing to meet their requirements on principle… the irony is not lost on me here.

I spoke up and I spoke out- I never bit my tongue in class. I worked my butt off in a warehouse the summer before university and decided that I was going to get my money’s worth while at school. It always amazed me when I’d ask an obvious question or ask for an explanation because “I’m lost”, and students would thank me after class… “I was so lost too, thanks for asking”… Why didn’t they speak up? What were they afraid of?

It didn’t matter if I was in a class of 20 or an auditorium of 200, the professor knew my name by the second or third class… sometimes this was to mutual benefit and sometimes purely my own… but I was not intentionally disruptive and I certainly never ’sucked up’ though I often had to endure the stares of Marshmallows² who thought I was sucking up… I didn’t care.

My favourite learning experience in school was not from a course. I had a Wednesday night class in the second term of my first year, and after the first class I was invited to join a few people for coffee. (As I tell this I have to chuckle at the fact that I have no recollection of what the Wednesday night course was.) We were a motley crew that spent the next 12 Wednesday nights discussing Religion and the Meaning of Life over a cup of java. Present at these coffee-shop-talks were a third-year student who was Atheist, his second-year devout Catholic girlfriend, a 35 year old ex-Hare Krishna of 14 years who served as their head chef for nine of those years, and then there was me. My values and beliefs were challenged beyond any classroom ever challenged me. We had our own Socrates Cafe where Big Questions were asked and we all took turns trying to answer them.

As for classes, well I excelled at classes such as the one on Educational Leadership where the The Tao of Leadership was the text, and topics of study included holistic learning. Meanwhile, I floundered in courses like Environmental Geography where I was lectured to from class beginning to bitter end. I have a box somewhere in my garage with some impressive doodles created in that class.

I remember taking a Philosophy course on Plato in my first year. Whenever I made a point contrary to my professor, or asked him a challenging question, he would respond with, “Well I think Plato would say…”
So, I was no longer disagreeing with him or questioning his ideas, but rather Plato’s instead! I lost all respect for him after he marked a paper with a comment that went something like this:

Very well thought out,
excellent arguments,
too short! C+

I knew the word count quota, but felt I’d said all that I needed to³. So I guess that if I had added about 150 more words of fluff, then and only then would I have earned an ‘A’ or at least a ‘B’ on this philosophy paper? To my Plato-Wanna-Be professor I was no Aristotle. By the end of the term he hated me… that was another fine line that I walked!

My dissent towards criteria was even evident with my Master’s Terminal Paper, (that I finished just two years ago), which is now used as my advisor’s example of what not to do (…of going too far, and being too long). At one point she asked me to shorten my paper so I edited one paragraph by about two sentences and then widened my margins.

So, am I an edupunk? To me, the answer is still ‘No’. I’m not a rebel, I didn’t buck the system. I was just a stubborn learner who let my surrounding environment determine when and if I chose to learn… not a lone wolf as much as a disgruntled sheep. The truth hurts, but I’m a big boy now and I can take it.

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Confession #3: I don’t like the term Edupunk

Stephen Downes loves the term. Alec finds Meaning and Identity:

…I am going to take Jen’s advice seriously when she says about edupunk “Don’t dissect the metaphor“. Edupunk, if nothing more, has got many people talking, exploring their beliefs around education, and in some cases, reminiscing of day’s long past. The educational community is much too diverse, as it should be, for anyone to cling on to one single metaphor for meaning.

Well, it certainly got me reminiscing, so what’s wrong with the term?

These are not Edupunks, they are Educational Leaders! The reality is that anti-establishment, Do-It-Yourself, transformative, collaborative, networked teachers doing new things, in new ways, in new wall-less, time-zone-less, textbook-less, standardized-test-less classrooms are paving the way for a new kind of schooling. I’ll say this again in a different way:

These are not Edupunks, they are Educational Leaders! They are our role models paving a new path to a more meaningful educational experience in our schools. They may be on the fringe, but they are also at the forefront. They are leading the way.

When I went to ContinUO we read Surfing the Edge of Chaos. Here we can find the appeal of Edupunks, but we can see that in reality we are speaking of our new Leaders.

“The fringes are the source of most truly innovative ideas in cultures, economies and organizations.”

But a problem arises in,

“…recognizing when the fringe has created something so important that it no longer deserves to be fringe.” (Alex Trisoglio, pg.31)

Our so-called Edupunks are figuring out a new path as they go… this isn’t about rogues, it is about adult learners who are trailblazing without a map.

“As a general rule, adults are much more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking than to think their way into a new way of acting.” (pg. 14)

Also in the book, Monsanto’s CEO Robert Shapiro speaks of Foresight (seeing ahead), Insight (seeing deeply), Speed, and Courage (pgs. 82-85). These are all things that I see in the educators being called Edupunks.

Let’s not put our leaders into fringe categories. Let’s recognize them as the trailblazers they are. They are Surfing the Edge of Chaos (or should I say educhaos)… and what they really deserve is our appreciation, thanks, and respect.

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Footnotes: As a teacher…

I guess you could say that at times I too have ‘acted my way into a new way of thinking’. My actions as a learner influenced my actions as a teacher, as these footnotes suggest.

¹ As a teacher, I don’t take any marks off for something coming in late. It is my job to make sure that students demonstrate their learning and meet the learning outcomes during the year. All time lines within the year are arbitrary (and usually teacher determined) and not a requirement worthy of penalty. Exceptions may be made where either Personal Planning or Goal Setting are part of the outcomes.

² As a teacher, I am very vocal about students needing to speak up and ask questions. “Don’t be a Marshmallow!” was a saying that I took from my Grade 10 English teacher Mr. La Point who used it to symbolize placid students sitting in his class and choosing not to speak up. At first being called Marshmallows in my class was funny, but soon students would catch on that they were not meeting expectations when they were being Marshmallows!

³ As a teacher my response to ‘how long does this assignment need to be?’ has always been, “It needs to be as long as it needs to be.” Students hate this answer, but after a while they get it. In a nutshell: I’ve read three brilliant sentences that have said more than three long-winded paragraphs.

The task was simple: Have your advisory pick an issue in the school and then create a video that promotes awareness of the problem and/or a solution to the problem. This is what Mr. Williams’ advisory came up with last year.

I like the use of camera direction to help tell the story. This to me is great storytelling… which is almost a lost art. Videos like this tell the story more by design than by content. Oh, and like all other Advisory projects this was not done for marks, yet you can tell the students were enthusiastic about participating.

Storytelling is something we should all spend more time on… as educators and students!

A Blog from Nothing

I remember when I put a ClustrMap on my blog. I saw one on a novel study wiki and thought it would be great for student wikis & blogs, to help students see that they have a global audience. It took me over an hour to figure out how and where to embed the html on the Elgg open source blogging platform. Then a few dots started to show up on the map and I must admit to getting excited. And now, when I look at a map of visitors for my first year of blogging, I really feel like something has been built from nothing.

The Children’s Book by This Name

If you don’t know the story, as told by Phoebe Gilman, here is Something from Nothing in a nutshell:

A loving grandfather makes a beautiful blanket for his grandson. The boy takes it everywhere with him until it gets ‘tattered and torn’ , and so his grandfather salvages what is left of it by making a beautiful jacket… which in turn gets ‘tattered and torn’ so the boy’s grandfather makes him something from what is left again, and again, and again… and considering the title, I won’t be giving anything away by saying eventually something is made from nothing!

A Reflective Move

Elgg, my blog’s host, switched to Eduspaces. Eduspaces was about to change again when I’d had enough. I decided to move my 80+ posts on my blog to somewhere that I had more control, and so I bought DavidTruss.com. When I tried to transfer my blog I ended up with about 3/4 of the posts being truncated and every tag I used transfered as a blank link… all 1,700+ or them. As I painstakingly erased them, one-by-one, I thought about the opportunity this could be for me to reflect on my blog so far.

On April 26th, 2008 I reposted my very first post with a small box at the end, placed there for my Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting. It then took me over 2 months to repeat the process for all my posts! Despite it being a much slower process than I imagined, I must admit that it has been a richly powerful and wonderful experience. At times my reflections were whimsical; at times they were like whole posts, adding new insights; and at times they either reinforced or challenged what I’d written. My posts are a reflection of my growth as an empowered learner who engages in thoughtful reflection.

When I started the paragraph above, I’d intended to pepper it with linked examples of what I was talking about. I was going to dig through my reflections and demonstrate how I was inventive or contemplative or … However, the purpose of this reflection is not to showcase what I’ve done, but rather to examine the value of the experience. I’m not sure if I’d want to scrutinize and dissect what I’ve written like this again, but I’m very glad that I went through this process, (or should I say ordeal?)

Moving Forward

When I moved to the Grad Transitions Coordinator position I sometimes felt that I had to bite my digital tongue since the things I really wanted to talk about could have sabotaged the program I was running. Then I got to this Vice Principals’ position and again questioned how this would change what I write about… how it would force me to bite my digital tongue not just when blogging with students, but always, as a ‘Person with New Responsibilities’.

Now, thanks to this reflection process, I feel like I can go forward and continue to challenge my own and others’ assumptions. I can question what I, and the proverbial ‘we’, do in institutional learning without hesitation or thinking that I have to watch what I say. This is my blog. This is my learning space. This is my place to question and challenge my thinking. If that gets me in hot water, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Addendum

Last October, during an interesting e-mail correspondence with some friends about cell-phone use in schools, I linked to this blog post. I was asked by our Manager of Information Services, who was one of the people in this correspondence, why I didn’t use the district’s Mysite for my personal blog. This was my e-mail response [with updates]:

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First of all, I have had this blog for a while now and it is my online ‘home’.

Second, I have a bit of a world audience… specifically a few readers in The US, Argentina, Scotland, Australia, and England, and so passwords protection is not appealing. (I’m not sure if this is an issue, can you directly link to the blog without a password? [You can, it has a district/locked face and a public face])

And also, I already RSS it into my mysite page.

I have considered posting my blog in the Mysite blog section as well (cross-posting in two locations [I've done this sparingly since writing this e-mail]), but there is one other reason…

I tend to be public about my dislike for the current state of education and that is MY opinion, not one endorsed by the district. I am not sure how well a blog post critical of education (such as this one http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/square-peg-round-hole/) would sit with some of the people who may be notified internally on their Mysite that I have a new blog post… and I don’t want the thought of that causing me to censor my personal views.

I’ve never actually stated the name of my school or my district in my blog, but they are easy enough to find out.

Perhaps I am just paranoid, but I question the idea of how personal this mysite is?

Do things I put there ‘belong’ to me?

Do I have an obligation or a responsibility to the district?

What if I was critical of the district in my blog? [I have been]

If I left the district how long would I have before ‘my property’ is taken away from me?

Basically my blog is MY BLOG, and I question my rights to do with it as I please within the Mysite space.

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His response was honest,

…Your questions about how you can use your my43 blog are excellent – we haven’t thought through that at all yet. I will raise those questions with the design team.

All this makes me wonder: How meaningful are some of these learning spaces we create for our students? Are we giving them a site that is theirs? Who really owns their learning? Who should?

Wednesday was when I got the phone call offering me the VP position.
Thursday was my last day of school with students in my Planning 10 classes.
Friday was a Pro-D day and I spent it with Student Teachers telling them all about Web2.0 skills.
Monday morning I was in a session with Alan November.(See NovemberLearning.com.)

And that’s when the Tidal Wave started!
It began about an hour into the Alan November presentation. First the announcement for my new position came out and a flood of congratulation e-mails came flowing in. Then Alan was speaking about all the neat tools Google has, and then within an hour I was being invited to present at his BLC08 Conference in July!

To call the events leading up to this serendipitous is an understatement. Here is how it evolved:
• Someone from my Learning Team just happened to be sitting at a table that put me within an arm’s reach of Alan.
• Alan began to expand on what Google can do as a result of a participant’s question.
• I just recently discovered and wrote about Google History.
• Alan walked right by me on the break and I asked him if he knew about Google History, “No, show me,” he says…
• I go to my blog to get easy access to the link and Alan happens to catch the title of my blog as I immediately begin scrolling down to the post, “You’re Pair-a-Dimes?” ["Yes", I say, still fixated on finding the link for him.]
• He asks me again, “You’re Pair-a-Dimes, you’re that guy? I’ve read you, I’ve seen people link to you, you’re that guy!” [So now I'm excited!]
• I show Alan Google History and a few things from my presentation I just happened to have done the Friday before for student teachers.
• Alan asks me to show the group Google History and “a few other things, whatever you want,” after the break.
• I go through my Brave New World Wide Web presentation, skipping ‘the competition’ and show a few links from my del.icio.us.
• Alan comes to me afterwards and says he wants to get me to his conference. He asks for 3 presentation ideas, and as of a couple days ago, I’m going to be presenting all 3 of them at the conference.

So many things had to coincide for this opportunity to open up for me. It has been all so overwhelming! A new job, an old job that I couldn’t just drop, and a presentation opportunity… all vying for my time and energy. I fell asleep twice at my computer last week.

Despite this overwhelming Tidal Wave of activity, what excites me equally as much are the tiny Ripples that I have seen recently too!
• Two teachers from my last school joined my presentation to Student Teachers, one of them started his first class wiki while in the session. Five of the student teachers have been in contact for some level of support/guidance since the presentation, (guilty admission here, I have not been going to their wikis to see how things are progressing).
• Another two teachers, as they offered well-wishes with my new position, thanked me for my guidance- both of whom I did little more than ’show a few things’.
• At my new school I am amazed at how receptive teachers have been to web2.0 tools. I spent Friday afternoon until 4pm with two of them.
• Considering how busy I have been, and how new to the school I am, I’ve been awed by the staff’s receptive welcome and eagerness to try new tools. On more than one occasion I’ve been learning from them as I suggest a tool and then they suggest an engaging use for the tool that I would never have imagined.
• Next week, I’m helping out with a presentation to parents, at my previous (high) school, to help them navigate MSN, Facebook and other means to connect to their digitally competent children.
• As an added bonus my Brave New World Wide Web presentation has been viewed almost 800 times, downloaded 25 times and embeded 10 times… more ripples.

I’m totally excited about this Tidal Wave that I caught and have been riding for a couple weeks now, but it the end, I think the Ripples of change that I have seen recently are what’s really going to make my new job meaningful to what I blog about in the future. And on this final note, I think that I will be leaving eduspaces and taking my Pair-a-Dimes somewhere else. I think I’m going to follow Clay’s lead and host my own Word Press blog. I don’t regret anything about my experience with elgg, then eduspaces, I just think that I need some things that this wonderful open-source initiative simply isn’t providing me. My move will be unconventional, (and time consuming), and I hope this approach will be cathartic as well as inspiring fodder for my upcoming presentations… but more on that later.

I spent Friday morning with 22 student teachers and a couple teachers from my school. My goal was to introduce them to the world of web2.0, wikis, and del.icio.us. Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad- I didn’t really get into delicious beyond an introduction. That aside, I think this group of future teachers really understood my point that education is changing and our teaching needs to change too!

The slideshare was my main introduction, and here is the wiki we used. I gave them each a page to play with and used video’s to convey many of the ideas I wanted to get across. I’d like to thank SFU Faculty Advisor and friend John Stockdale for the opportunity.

I’d love to be able to give this message to every student teacher!

This is the end of my last post on our class Ning network for Planning 10 this term. The first link isn’t really appropriate but my students get my sense of humour by now, and we just finished talking about sex-ed, so I put it in anyway. For reasons I cannot express in this venue at this time, I will really miss these two classes!

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And finally, I will leave you with this:

1. Make smart, realistic goals for yourself… it takes effort to follow through with your goals, so make them SMART and easier to find success with!

2. Figure out who you are and what is important to you. Don’t let media perceptions change you. Be safe, and if you are going to be a role model for others, be a positive one.

3. Remember that the world is getting smaller, and that we are now global citizens… in a new global market… connected in new ways… take care of your neighbours!

Peace.

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