Another Glimpse into the Future?

Link To: Weblogg-ed – The Read/Write Web in the Classroom

One of the themes I’ve been returning to often is that the K-12 teachers in the trenches are shaping the future for those of us in higher education to a far greater extent than most of us in the college and university arena realize. Here’s a partial program lineup from the Illinois Technology Conference, courtesy of Will Richardson.

* “No more excuses, it’s time to start blogging” full day workshop by Steve. (No seats left)
* “iPods in the Classroom” full day workshop with Karen Percak. (Full)
* “Read, Write and Blog” full day workshop with Susim Munshi. (Full)
* “Wikis and Weblogs as School Communication Tools” full day workshop with Tim Lauer. (No seats left.)
* “The New Read/Write Web: Transforming the Classroom” and “What’s Up with Wikis?” by, um…that would be me.
* “Blogging– Revolutionize Education” by Susim Munshi and Susan Switzer
* “Got Wikis?” by David Jakes
* “Web Based Communication Tools for Schools” by Tim Lauer
*Flickr in the Classroom” by David Jakes
* “Using iPods for Student Learning” by Karen Percak
* “Podcasting 101” by Steve Dembo
* “Telling the New Story” by David Warlick
* “Radio For Kids, By Kids” by Tony Vincent”

Interesting implications….

8 thoughts on “Another Glimpse into the Future?”

  1. That would be you, all right. 🙂 Great line-up, and it looks like the interest is extremely high. Great titles too. I think you’re right about K-12, and in some ways it’s the same thing that happens when countries with harder living conditions and fewer resources begin to turn out Nobel laureate writers. Sometimes it’s easier to feel the urgency when the environment is more difficult, even more dangerous.

    Keep those cards and letters coming, Techfoot!

  2. I have just finished reading “Mathematics Interventions for Children with Special Educational Needs” by Drs. Kroesbergen and Van Luit in Remedial and Special Education Journal (March/April 2003 sorry no link). In this meta-analysis study they concluded that direct instruction and self-instruction had larger effect sizes over computer-assisted and peer tutoring instruction. One of the things that struck me was that blogs are extremely self-directed in nature that their potential to impact effect sizes need to be explored for use among special education students. With NCLB and the need for scientifically research-based practices, educators need to complete action research in area of blog self-directed instruction share their results to the blogoshpere.

  3. Thanks for this Gene — other than Richardson and Lauer I’ve been woefully ignorant of the K-12 scene, and it appears your assertion of their leadership appears to hold some water. Looks like I’m going to have to expand my network some…

  4. K-12 teachers are definitely leading the way. I think the reason is because the ground was prepared with years of having grants for hardware that just sat and teachers were clueless as to how to best utilize it.

    They got use to hearing how to truly help the changing student population they were seeing in their classrooms they needed to learn to integrate the technology in their lessons. They heard this mantra being chanted from their teacher prep programs (although they often didnt see it modeled), they were threatened with proficiency being tied to positive evaluations and licensure, and they had students showing up who could use the technology sitting stagnant in their classrooms.

    Where as higher education (at least school of education) hasnt even figured out that Web 2.0 is a vital component to becoming an educated citizen. Scholarship– is fast becoming something that occurs outside brick and mortar. Schools of Education better run to catch up.

    I want to present with you next gig! That would be so much fun!
    Oh and btw… I am back! Blogosphere– look out!

  6. Sheryl,

    Not sure what happened with your address on you last post, but I was able to back in an fix it so that folks will be able to find you. (I like the new layout of your site.)

    -gr

  7. I responded to your comment on my site. Very interesting stuff you left me over there. I should be doing a paper and just can’t stop thinking. That is the problem with my doctorate. It keeps getting in the way of my learning.

  8. Sheryl,

    That’s a very perceptive comment above and it’s got me thinking hard in lots of directions. (I love it when that happens.)

    Have you read “The Flickering Mind”? I started and got bored–much journalism affects me that way–but I’m thinking I might need to go back and finish. There may be more food for thought, even if the book itself doesn’t light me up.

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