“A portal to Connect Classrooms to the World: Global Citizens can Share Talents and Skills with Students. Teachers can find Global Citizens (Volunteers) willing to help in a field of interest that they are working on in their class.”
[*Update: Links to the ning will not work after Aug. 20th, 2010 – See the 1st comment]
FieldFindr: Where teachers can meet global citizens with skills to share.
It started with a post and a wiki, and now it has evolved into a Ning Network.
I humbly request your help so that WE can make this happen. After you sign up, this forum post is a great place to start.
Thank you for contributing to this new site!
Originally posted: October 3rd, 2007
First, here is the April 15th/08 reflection from my original Fieldfindr post: – – – – – So, in reflecting on my blog posts I move from an unsuccessful book club to an unsuccessful portal… they would be disappointing if they weren’t so enlightening! To this day, failures are looked upon as negative as opposed to opportunities for learning. It seems conditioned into us at such a young age… this is a comment on our society as much as it is a comment on schools. This is still a great idea… but it was DOOMED TO FAIL! Why? 1. Because it is geared to educators, not to those who would be willing to contribute. My audience and the target audience are not the same. Also the structures to build a sortable ‘bank’ of volunteers are not available for those interested in signing up, (see #3). 2. Formal measures around safety need to be hammered out. Note Kelly’s Comment on the original post: Dave, I like this idea. I think that it has great potential. Now, the administrator comes out in me but how do we ensure that: a. The person is an expert in what they say they are b. They are safe c. There is not “inappropriate” contact between people and the students. I think this is wonderful and we have this type of thing going on in our school with some of our local people. The big difference is that we are in a small community, people who are vounteering must do a criminal records check and any outside school projects are to be okayed by the parents. Precautions. I think that this would be an incredible way to get people from different sectors involved in the education system. This would also allow teachers to have references for their projects or assignments – would give validity to what we do in schools. That would increase the “price of stock” for educators in all areas.
3. Both Wikispaces and Ning are the wrong venues, I simply don’t have the required tech savvy-ness or financial resources (or for that matter time) to create what is needed.
– – –
That said, I can see a University really taking this on as a project. They can start with one department, say Music or Science, and promote the interests of their instructors/Masters Students/PhD students with teachers that may be interested in their skills as either mentors or experts or judges or…
There is significant need and opportunity for such a portal and I challenge anyone with the knowledge and resources to make it happen!
– – – – –
Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:
Vicki Davis added this to the comment to the post mentioned above: Why don’t you take this on, or resurrect the discussions as part of the Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety, and Success efforts that people are joining in. I still think it is a great idea — there needs to be a way to safely screen the adults, somehow. Maybe there is still hope for something like this to happen. Who has the skill, know-how and resources to make it happen? |
As of August 20th, 2010 Ning networks are no longer a free service and so this little idea has come to an end. I sent this message to all the members of the FieldFindr Ning just now. Although I know this site wasn’t used much, there are many Nings that will be lost as a result of this and I think the ‘lost knowledge’ will be a real shame. It comes back to my recent point of ‘Who Owns the Learning?’ http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/who-owns-the-learning/
“We don’t own the learning and so we shouldn’t keep it away from the learners. Let’s not put an expiry date on our digitally shared learning experiences.”
Here is the message:
Hi folks,
This Ning started as a blog post and a wiki here. But it never really evolved to much. I do thank you for joining although with Ning going to pay only sites I don’t see a need to continue this here.
The
2010 Global Education Conference will be held November 15 – 19, 2010,
online and free.
Also, this a site that seems to be doing what I had intended this site to do here, (although I have not used it):
View the current list of experts willing
to Skype into your class/school…
http://www.skypeforeducators.com/educators.htm
Anyway thanks again for joining my little experiment called FieldFindr, and all the best to you with your future global connections!
Dave.
David Truss
@datruss on Twitter
http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/contact
Dave,
I have 8 Nings that will bite the dust. All active and full of content and thousands of hours of people’s commitment.
I wrote a bit about the “closing of the web” on my blog – http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2010/08/17/the-summer-of-my-discontent/ about this / my own situation. It IS sick that TOS mean nothing. That personal content/work mean nothing. I guess – as a poem I once wrote lamented, “living is an affair for those who turn on the ovens”. If you know what I mean.
David