Communication- Evidence the World is Changing
I wrote a post about Swivel the other day (a really interesting data sharing/graphing site) at about 11:40 at night. By the next morning I had two comments from the co-founders (Mr. Dimov and Mr. Mulloy).
To me this demonstrates how the world has fundamentally changed. It really is about conversation and the people who take the time and have the skill to communicate are going to succeed. These are the skills our students will need.
I have to feel that Swivel will do very well. These guys get it.
Related posts
1:1 Programs and Expectations
Mr. Guhlin asked “How have laptop programs helped?” and the responses depressed me. Maybe, I’m over analyzing but quote like “Imagine anything one could do on an overhead projector. You can do the same on a tablet if you have an LCD.” brought me close to tears. Clearly, replacing an overhead and pen with several thousands of dollars worth of equipment to do “the same” is not a cost efficient trade. Other quotes that made me wince: my laptop/tablet has replaced a paper notebook during meetings. Have students do grammar exercises. Math teachers do the same. Not exactly what you’d want to hear if you’re paying for those laptops. Now, I also realize these are quick reports but I don’t see anything in there about students doing anything they couldn’t do with paper for far less money. The whole point of a 1:1 is to get students producing with laptops and to have no comment on that worries me. Don’t get me wrong- I’m for 1:1 initiatives and that’s why I’m concerned. I work in a district going on the 6th year of a 1:1 initiative and I worry that some teachers might give similar “proof” that our program is working. So here’s how our 1:1 has helped students in our school- everyone now has a computer no matter their […]
ITRT Aggregation Site Reflection
cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by bionicteaching Back in November of 2010,542 days ago. I posted about building an ITRT “mother blog”Just one of those aggregation blog populated through other RSS feeds. to share things I thought might be useful for Henrico ITRTs. It seems like it’s working on my end. There are currently 1912 posts from at least 261 different sourcesThere are 119 posts under “author unknown.” and that includes a period of time when Delicious feed stopped working for some reason. That’s an average of about 3.5 posts a day. The most important part is that this is part of my work flow. I am not working harder but I’m doing more with the energy I was already expending. Documenting for an audience has changed some nuances of my process as well. I add a few more tags in Delicious. I have more of tendency to add interesting quotes and explanations to links in the hopes of providing context/interest for others. All in all, it simply makes me more aware of an external audience. That probably helps me in the long run as well as I’ve been known to forget my own ideas. There are virtually no comments on the site but I have seen evidence through conversations that at least a few people […]
A Brief Note to K12
Dear K12, I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you this but the vendors are not your friends. You are not one “big family.” Maybe you can be “partners” but really even that is a distant dream most of the time. Anything they seem to do for you is done with a firm look at the bottom line and how they can use you to make money. These are not gifts. Seriously. You can’t afford to be this naive any longer. That “award” certifying you as a really super X-brand teacher, that free conference registration- these are not things they do for you out of kindnessGranted, you may be awesome. I’m not disputing that- although listing every award you’ve ever gotten in your email signature is a bit much in my opinion.. This is for them. Every single bit of it, bought and paid for. Their return on investment is pre-calculated. If it didn’t make them money, they would not do it. Don’t get me wrong. Take the awards, take the trips or whatever- just don’t forget that they are getting what they want out of you. Make sure you’re getting what you want out of them in return. This is a transaction, a business transaction. Make sure it’s an equal transaction. Think about what you’re doing […]