In her last post the quote that Mary Kate shared really spoke to me:
As you navigate through the rest of
your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are
often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire
you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. ---Amy Poehler
My biggest take away from Mary Kate’s last post was how
her class’ collaborative response was so much more inclusive than one person’s
response. This was possible through technology. I realized that this was a great example of how technology enhanced the learning.
Lately I have been reminded that we need to teach technology
as a tool. This past week Hilliard hosted Ohio's Innovative LearningConference. As I followed on twitter #ileOhio, I saw Tweets from https://twitter.com/frankisibberson, Franki Sibberson’s keynote address. There were several Tweets about how our
expectations change when the use of technology is authentic. Mary Kate’s
experience in her cyber class shows how technology enhanced not only the
collaboration but also the depth of the learning and ultimately the final
comment.
Several years back I was invited to a gathering where
teachers came together and talked about their learning and use of
technology. This group is responsible
for introducing me to Twitter. I left
that meeting very excited to be a part of the Twitter world. I loved it for a bit and then I hit a
wall. I simple couldn’t keep up or
didn’t have the strategies to manage Twitter in an effective way – time-wise
and professionally.
So I made the decision to take a break from twitter.
Several years later, I started noticing that I was missing
some very strong, relevant, helpful posts on Twitter. I knew this because posts were announced on
Facebook. This actually led me back to Twitter
and I am so thankful. Now I don’t know what I would do professionally without Twitter. The community and connections are part of my professional
lifelines. I have learned how to skim
and search for what I want to read and to manage my time spent on Twitter. I am also learning to be more of a
participant. The links for posts on blogs and articles are an important part
of my professional learning, thinking and collaborating. Luckily at several summer conferences I have met some of my Twitter friends in person - my learning circle continues to grow! But I had to learn for myself the need I had for Twitter and
how it fueled me as a learner. I am now
learning how to participate more and trust myself as a contributing
participant, to not just listen (read) but to post too, to collaborate more!
Mary Kate asked us when do we talk and when do we listen? Twitter
is my example for this question. I had to listen for a long time on Twitter
before I could talk. No one judged me for
just listening (reading), although I was sometimes nudged that I had something
to share! We all know this is true for some
of our students. Sometimes as learners
we have to listen and feel the security of the community before we talk. How can we learn if we don’t stop, listen and
open our minds to the contributions and thoughts of others? On the flip, how will I contribute, put
myself out there in order to share my own thinking in progress? I am thankful for all those who are willing to share and feed our learning. I have to do the same even if my thinking is constantly a work in progress! How will I nudge students to do the same, to
contribute with their thinking? How will you do this for your students? Perhaps
it will be through technology that students find voice and community.
This year I am going to try to practice listening more. What
would you change in your classroom if you challenged yourself to listen more
closely to those strong voices of adults and children around you?
Here is my book share for the day, from my summer reading. I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD I received a message from Mary Lee Hahn http://readingyear.blogspot.com that simply said "Stop everything and read this book!" How could I ignore such recommendation! And I am so glad that I followed her advice for this quick read. I choose this book for this post because there is example of the power of collaboration and the power of
authentic use of technology! AND SO SO MUCH
MORE! (Believe me the big message is not about technology and collaboration, but you'll have to follow my friend's advice to find out and "Stop everything and read this book!"
