Web 2.0

Comment by Skip Zilla on May 28, 2007 at 5:41pm

Lisa,
It seems to me after viewing the fifth-grade collaborative at Denton Avenue School that Mrs. Parisi and Ms. Southard are concluding a remarkably successful year both online and off. Sure, you were fortunate to receive a big boost from David Warlick, but the success which shows in your blogging and podcasting with your students depended on your work. Congratulations for what you've accomplished!

Most of us feel the same frustration you do about the time and mental concentration it takes just to briefly preview new Web 2.0 tools as they become available. You actually may have been spoiled by David Warlick's direct instruction and support when compared with the way most of us introduced ourselves to blogging and podcasting. It seems that the appeal for another real person to directly assist your learning to use other tools is based on the effectiveness David's intervention had on you and Christine.

My suggestion is that you look at the transformation from old-technology to new-technology teaching as akin to learning to master an art like painting or playing music on the cello. There are no shortcuts in artistic development that takes time and diligent practice to perform at a mature level, no matter how good your teachers are.

Who says that any of us has to chase after every new tool as it emerges in cyberspace? Perhaps a better, less stressful strategy for that portion of your professional development that involves becoming a skillful technologist is to spend time and energy gaining experience and insight using the tools you already have begun to use so that you can master them as an educator, not merely a tool user. Without overburdening yourself, you can introduce other new tools into your educational practice, not when they're so cutting-edge that there's little support for them, but when they've had some chance for the very early adopters to develop enough proficiency that they can be of use to you as mentors or tutors.

If you're impatient and want to be the technologist always at the cutting edge, you're not likely to find many paths beaten to follow.

Again, congratulations on a great year.

.

Comment by Peg V on August 26, 2007 at 7:49am

I share the challenge of learning as much as I can in order to become a more effective teacher- and with the abundance of emerging technologies.. it is overwhelming. A good thing.. I am connected with more people outside of my RL world to learn more.
hope to share with you! : ) Peg v: )

Comment by Lisa Parisi on August 26, 2007 at 10:02am

Made so much progress even since writing this blog post. Found online support - connecting with like-minded people also learning on their own. So we help each other along. Finding people here, in Second Life, through webcast chats, in Twitter has been an amazing tool for me.

Comment