Tips by Tony

Here are just a few of the articles I found interesting over the past several weeks:

• The Top Eleven Things All Teachers Must Know About Technology

  Fantastic post about technology in education. Read it, then read it again. And, as usual, don’t forget to read the comments! Some great conversation going on by readers just like you…

  1. Technology is not a monolith. Technology doesn’t tell you what to do and it doesn’t force you to behave in ways you’d rather not. Technology — particularly social technology — is whatever you make it. Use what you want, leave the rest. Mash it up, alter it to fit your needs, customize it, and own it. If you can’t do that with your technology, then you are using the wrong technology.

  I strongly agree! Technology is what you make it. If you have the attitude of: “This is just another thing they want me to learn. I don’t need this to teach, so I’m going to sit here and smile then forget all about it as soon as I leave this training session.” – then you’ll never get anything out of technology…and your students will be the ones who suffer most. There are some great tools out there that when used properly can engage students and make them want to learn more. The good news is, most of the heavy lifting has been done by other educators. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel. But you’ll never know how to use the tools if you isolate yourself and pretend technology isn’t important.

  9. Kids need to be taught digital citizenship. Hate using YouTube because of the filth in the comments? Then teach your kids that commenting on YouTube is a part of their responsibility as digital citizens; because in all social media it is the users who decide the content. Digital citizenship being a daily component of classroom learning, in eight years time let’s see what the comments on YouTube look like. And that doesn’t mean YouTube needs to be ‘cleaned up’; rather, much of the passion related to YouTube happens in the comments and it’s often raw and real (as well as sophomoric and prejudiced). But it tells us alot about ourselves and we shouldn’t be afraid to help our kids navigate it and become critical participants in the dialogue. Never forget that you are a teacher: you aren’t ‘making’ the present, you are ‘facilitating’ the future. So don’t be discouraged about what you see now, rather be encouraged about what your teaching will let tomorrow look like.

  Yes! Don’t hide/filter/attempt to protect students from the world – you’re only destined to fail. Instead, TEACH. You have a unique opportunity to help “clean up” these resources by teaching your students how to be good digital citizens.

• How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live

  A TIME article that delves into the what makes Twitter so much more than a simple diversion.

  And yet as millions of devotees have discovered, Twitter turns out to have unsuspected depth…But the key development with Twitter is how we’ve jury-rigged the system to do things that its creators never dreamed of.

  At the outset of the conference, our hosts announced that anyone who wanted to post live commentary about the event via Twitter should include the word #hackedu in his 140 characters. In the room, a large display screen showed a running feed of tweets…

  At first, all these tweets came from inside the room and were created exclusively by conference participants tapping away on their laptops or BlackBerrys. But within half an hour or so, word began to seep out into the Twittersphere that an interesting conversation about the future of schools was happening at #hackedu…Back in the room, we pulled interesting ideas and questions from the screen and integrated them into our face-to-face conversation.

  When the conference wrapped up at the end of the day, there was a public record of hundreds of tweets documenting the conversation. And the conversation continued — if you search Twitter for #hackedu, you’ll find dozens of new comments posted over the past few weeks, even though the conference happened in early March.

  I’m probably sounding like a broken record at this point, since I’ve said this many times before, but the conversation is happening on Twitter. Educators from all over the world are sharing ideas. All day, every day. Join the conversation.

• The Problem with ‘Naked Classrooms’

  Reaction to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about removing computers from lecture halls.

  It’s not tech vs. no tech.

  It’s active tech vs. passive tech.

  And if you don’t know the difference, just raise your hand and ask. If it’s discussion and engagement you are looking for, there are plenty of social technologies that will enhance conversation and learning in any class. In fact, there are plenty of teachers using these technologies everyday in fantastic ways.

  Social technologies empower teachers and students. Access to the Web and its information and communication features is vital to education, not a hindrance. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Related posts:

1. Monday Morning Roundup (8/31/2009)
2. Monday Morning Roundup (9/14/09)
3. Monday Morning Roundup (07/27/2009)
4. Monday Morning Roundup (10/19/2009)
5. Monday Morning Roundup (08/17/2009)
6. Monday Morning Roundup (5/4/2009)
7. Monday Morning Roundup (5/18/2009)
8. Monday Morning Roundup (5/11/2009)
9. Monday Morning Roundup (06/01/2009)
10. Monday Morning Roundup (7/19/2010)