TOSA: Day 0

Today seems like best day of any to start-up again at this blog.  I had great ambitions last year (while attending CUE, which is where I usually get caught up in the influx of hype and hyperbole), but failed to take into account, again, the time and effort teaching on a daily basis requires.  So, now that I am officially not of the daily classroom type anymore (or at least for the time being), my excuse limit has reached zero.

While today is not my official start date, it was the first day of meeting with my new supervisor to go over what is expected of me in this position.  I’m extremely excited about all the projects I’m going to be involved in, and even more excited about the desire to fully embed Web 2.0 resources into the district.

Next week will see the first session of the Global Classroom, which aims to slowly, but effectively, bring some of the core W2.0 resources into the classroom.  In preparing for this, I’ve been reading — for all of one day — Will Richardson’s “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.”

I’m only one chapter in, but a few key phrases that seem to resonate more than others with me:

“How do we need to rethink our ideas of literacy when we must prepare our students to become not only readers and writers, but editors and collaborators?” (Richardson, pg. 5)

This seems like an often overlooked key part of literacy in the classroom.  With information being 2-way these days, and no longer passive, students will be called on to evaluate and assess what their reading, and make changes to that which doesn’t fit.  That skill almost supersedes a child’s ability to synthesize information.

2) “All around us, kids are creating content in ways that most adults haven’t yet tried.” (Richardson, pg. 6)

This is the crux of the “Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant” issue.  It’s not just that teachers aren’t aware of all the ways to access and aggregate information; it’s that the kids already know how to do this, and it clearly causes an information gap between these two generations.  It would be only a sizeable issue if both parties were in the dark on how to acquire this highly up-to-date information, but it is a problem of immense proportions now that one is aware of — and accessing — this information; and, it’s not the side that is trained and educated in how to assess and evaluate.  It’s the “Digital Natives” — the ones who need guidance and support on what to do with this glut and swell of information they’ve stumbled upon.

More tomorrow, as I prepare to share my clasroom Skyping experiences with the Global Classroom attendees.