We were all very fortunate to have the inspirational speaker/writer, Will Richardson spend the day with us. As a district, Herricks has always been committed to effective use of educational technology but this year is making a special effort to further the use of Web 2.0 tools.
This past summer I read Will's book , "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" and have been digesting it ever since. Like many of you, I am sometimes reluctant to try new things and need a push to get going. I don't consider myself a power user in this area due to the fact that I haven't had much practical experience using these tools. Listening to Will just might be the push that gets me going.
I hope everyone benefited from the day as much as I and would love to hear your thoughts.
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16 comments:
I very much enjoyed Will's words and insight. I think that the challenges that we as educators will be facing in the near future will be bigger than we can even imagine. The question that kept resonating with me was "How can we truly prepare our students for the careers and world of tomorrow when we cannot fully identify the skills that they will need to succeed?"
I suppose that the underlying theme is empowerment through technology and the opportunities that are afforded through its uses. The walls of our classrooms are not being broken down.. they are being digitally expanded way beyond our physical reach.
I enjoyed Will's presentations today a great deal also. I took a bunch of notes, but my thinking kept returning to his assertions that this is about lifelong learning, and about more and more people around the world having the chance to create and participate and connect, as Adam points out, and not just to be passive receivers of information. Very inspiring!
I am always excited and motivated when I leave a presentation or an in-service class that incorporates technology. Today especially, Will Richardson's thoughts made me think about how we should not be critical of, or trying to "block" such things like Facebook, Wikipedia, etc but to look at these technology pieces as tools to enrich our curriculum and classroom. I am excited to collaborate with my colleagues and try some of these new things personally and professionally in the weeks to come.
I found the day thought provoking and agree with Will that we need to understand the technology that our kids are using if we can truly understand them. I hope that the district offers some training sessions on how to use the technologies he discussed at the lecture.
I too was very motivated after today's presentation. I shared his views with my friends and family regarding adolescents creating profiles on the web then being held accountable for everything they've posted- especially when it can determine their future. It was a real eye opener as to how careful we ALL have to be. He's correct in saying we have to teach them the "right" way to create these profiles instead of their peers modeling it for them. On the other hand, I disagree with Will Richardson on his approach to visiting the principal, at his daughter's school, because he didn't think she needed to memorize the 50 U.S. states. I still believe that our children need to use the basic skill of mental memorization. I also think as a citizen of this country we shouldn't have to look up on our iFONE the capital of a U.S. state. I realize this was just an example that he used but it is important for teachers to still teach our kids thinking skills that will expand their minds.
Will Richardson brings up excellent points about technology and our future and I think that Herricks can definitely assist our students in being prepared!
I thought Will's presentation was awesome and thought-provoking. In Searingtown's 4th/5th grade research program we are doing many of the things that Will spoke about. As a librarian, what I zeroed in on was the need to teach our students information and media literacy. I am doing that and I think all of the librarians need to make sure that this is part of their curriculum. "Lifelong learners" and "Information Literacy"have been library buzzwords for a long time now. Never were they more relevant than now! For those of you who would like to read a summary of Will's presentation, go to http://wlteam.blogspot.com/2008/11/will-richardson-herricks-school.html
I don't think it's bad for students to look up facts (like the capitals). Why should we emphasize facts? I think we really need to rethink what we're teaching.
We need to be teaching skills - not facts.
This is what is holding us back. The attitudes we came to teaching with. We need to rethink what we do.
That is what he was saying.. with his daughter memorizing the various types of horses, she would be learning and reinforcing the skill rather than the 'selected facts'. Playing devil's advocate, we wouldn't be able to allow students to totally drive what they are learning and whatever method they would use to practice, reinforce and hopefully synthesize a skill.
How do we do both without sacrificing either?
This was the second time I have the privilege of hearing Will speak. He reminded me of the importance of having children establish networks that are meaningful and can help them maximize themselves. I heartily agree that they need the skills for the 21st century and we need to be teaching them these thinking-problem solving-networking skills in a safe and intelligent way. I would also appreciate training from the district in these realms.
in my opinion, WILL RICHARDSON is outstanding as a presenter. he knows his material, how it is impacting the world and our students, and how this challenges us as educators. he is most enjoyable, and i now have a good list of books, articles and websites that he recommended which look to be really interesting.
the movie i chose, A WHOLE NEW MIND, addressed much of what i have been working on in my library classroom. the amusing speaker brought an interesting order to the ways our world is changing, and how all people, my 21st century students in particular, will need different right-brain approaches and skills.
such an exciting time to be an educator.
As a Technology Education teacher, I was trained to teach students to use tools to learn. When a student is given tools that allow them to create, they develop skills that can be used in the white collar and blue collar workforce. I think Mr. Richardson was telling us to use the computer as a learning tool, allowing students to develop skills and thoughts in areas they are passionate about. Teaching students the correct way to use a tool allows them to branch off and seek out knowledge in areas of their particular interest.
If we failed to instruct a child on how to use a bandsaw and they were to get injured, we’d blame ourselves for not showing them how to use it. The same applies to all tools or types of technology. Knowing the appropriate way of using a tool prevents injury. If we fail to teach students to use technology, they are not safe.
Hi! I enjoyed the day and now today (Wed.) I see teachers all around inspired and motivated to make this change. I tried classblogmeister today and I need a school code? can someone email me this code so I can register?! I want to learn how to use it. I've seen some of you do some great things with it.
For those who were not in the Cafeteria for the debriefing session, I felt our room had many favorable reactions to Will's presentation, as well as suggestions for how the Herricks Community can become a more involved part through the use of technology. One suggestion discussed was having students in the high school connect with the students in the middle school who will be joining them next year. Thsi would also be true for the elementary students who would be entering middle school and who might want to connnect with one another before they start that new journey in their Herricks career. I also found that wiki's, blogs, and podcasts were new and exciting for me to learn about in Grad school and were exciting for the students to use that I student taught. The concern over when teachers will be trained, or even just to experiment, with these technologies seemed to be in question.
I appreciate what Ely says about teaching students to use tools. Apprenticeship was the original pedagogy! I also agree with Mike that we (at least I did and still do to a certain extent) come to teaching with certain preconceptions about what kids need to know and how they need to know it. Skills are indeed, at the very least, as important as content. I think Will's point about the state capitals (not needing to memorize them) was meant as a hypothetical. It's not so much that they shouldn't memorize them, but rather why aren't we allowing them to "memorize" things that they are passionate about and then to make meaning of the world through those things? When access to information is changing so drastically, simply obtaining that information (through recall, iphone, or otherwise) is, maybe, not enough. Evaluating that information - any information, actually - and figuring out what to do with that information (to make ourselves and the world around us better, perhaps?) becomes the new, urgent question, I think.
I also want to say that, in response to Sam G. and the last comment that was made, we can maintain our privacy and boundaries while being able to be "found" (as Will said) on a Google search despite the apprehension. I'm dealing with that now in my life as an educator/musician/writer/occasional artist person.
Thanks, Dave, for giving us an opportunity to reflect...
We need to take a look at the issue of technology from two different perspectives – 1) implementing technology in the classroom and 2) discerning information and resources. The first part will be relatively easy. We can all probably add some aspect of a blog or other new technology into our assessments. The second is a bit tougher and needs to be addressed first. We need to create some framework to teach students how to navigate through information. This is the larger issue. I disagree with Will Richardson that the ends justify the means. Students should be made aware of things like intellectual property, plagiarism, etc. Without this basis of knowledge we do students a huge disservice. By looking for information under the first 5 hits of Google, we do not teach any critical thinking/analysis skills.
Certainly technology is vital to our students for their future. It is a valuable tool. In order for us to use it safely and securely we need the technology support and the time to be able to learn about it and the time to practice with it so that we are comfortable with it and can present it to our students with care and purpose. But we also need the support and guidance from our administration as to what they deem appropriate. This notion of everything being available to parents and students to scrutinize and even change can leave us open to criticisms and problems that we did not anticipate and where will our administration stand then?
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