Today is Saturday, the day I collect my thoughts of the last week. I was thinking about the session we had on Tuesday with the guest being Stephen Downes. I really enjoyed the insights he shared with us. On of his thoughts that stuck out in my mind is that we need to assess the technological trends in our community. What is important to my community at this point in time? Personally I have always left it up to others to make those assessments in my community and then I would follow the trend. For instance I very much depended on our schools computer teacher, who has retired two years ago. In the time that he had left the community I found that I have not put the effort into learning and using technology in the my classroom, or school for instance. In my heart I know that I want to do more because in a sense it provides a sense of pride for our school and community that we are keeping up with the changing times and guiding our students to be successful when they leave the community and have to use such technologies.
I then decided that I would like to read more into what Mr. Downes had to say, so I looked at his site. One article I found quite interesting is the “Nine Rules for Good Technology”. It helped me to evaluate personally as to how much good technology do I practice, and what about using it in my passion of teaching? His response to Farhad Saba’s comments left much to my thinking of technology personally and professionally and being able to apply the rules of “Good Technology.” For more about this article you can look here: http://www.downes.ca/post/196.
Til next time….
Guy Penney said,
March 1, 2009 @ 7:03 pm
Hi Brandi:
I was left thinking about many things in relation to Stephen Downes’ presentation as well. I began to wonder about what the teaching profession would look like ten years from now and how I would fit in. I came to the realization that things are going to change with or without me and that If I want to continue to be an effective educator I am going to have to be more embracing of technology than I am currently. This class has certainly encouraged me to try some new things and I believe it is essential that I continue down this path. I have also discovered that there are many sources of help all around me everyday, all I have to do is ask.
dlink08 said,
March 2, 2009 @ 2:49 am
Stephen Downes had me thinking,
He was really good to listen to about how much information is on the web. And how an individual can learn so much by just entering a word and reading about it. Technology is changing and our communities need to follow along or else we be left behind, I mean our students would be left behind. Take charge and be the new computer teacher, it would be definitely fun once you cover the boring stufff like keyboarding but they need to learn how.
later, darren
Miles Johnson said,
March 11, 2009 @ 2:00 am
Technological leadership is not an easy road to navigate but it sounds like you are going outside your comfort zone and challenging yourself to be a leader in your school and that’s great. In the past I have also sat back and let technology come to me through others teaching me or introducing me to new things. I have learnt so much as a result of EC&I 831 but there is so much more that I have to explore. I am finding it difficult time wise to explore everthing that has been introduced to me in the course and by our fellow students. I am curious if there are others that feel the same way I do?