Learning as a Way of Teaching

…but it is slowly sinking in.  I had a moment of dawning comprehension this afternoon that left me feeling a little bit…well, old.  Our tech teacher is using think.com from Oracle to build an online learning community for her students.  She created a teacher account for me so I can learn and participate alongside her students.  And today it hit me.  I have no idea how to use the community.  I thought it would be simple.  Yet, I found myself asking out loud to no one in particular, “What do I do now?”  Students are flying through the interfaces and creating content, and I do not even know where to begin.  With a little more time, perhaps I will catch on.

But it doesn’t stop there.  IM and texting fascinated me.  Why would I use my phone to type a message?  Isn’t that like using my television to listen to the radio?  Wouldn’t it be faster to call my friend than to text him?  What my students are using so fluently, I struggle with.  It takes me forever to text on my phone.  By the time I text a complete message, I could have tracked down a teenager and asked him to do it for me.  The grammarian in me refuses to abbreviate or use the texting language that makes me cringe when I see it. 

The more I talk and write, the more I realize that I am truly a digital immigrant. I have always loved computers.  I have owned one my entire life.  However, it is a cultural thing for teens to IM the way that they do.  A culture that I did not grow up in and am having a hard time connecting with.

I am trying to connect with teachers.  I am trying to assimilate all that they are saying to me in Classroom 2.0 (which of course is blocked at my campus).  I read Will, Graham, Kim, and others to gain wisdom and insights on living in a 2.0 world.  And I have to say, it does not come easily.

I am frustrated by the outdated technologies and filters in my classrooms.  The rate at which students are creating content and the quality of content does not make me think I am doing something correctly.  And it become even more aware that I am a stranger in a strange land.  I am trying and I do not know if what is happening is good.

I keep telling myself that it just takes time.  However, I am a very impatient person and do not want to wait for administrators to get on board.  I do not want to wait for the new budget to roll in so we can be decent tools.  I do not want to wait.

Now that the venting has passed, I feel better. 

Graham helped put things into perspective for me.  What this post revealed to me was why I should be exercising my 2.0 muscles.  At first, blogs and wikis were cool.  They looked slick and I liked the way wikis made it easy to share content.  But I lose focus when the newness wears off and I realize that blogging for blogging’s sake leaves me feeling empty.  I want to see what others are doing in the classroom.  In fact, I do it without 2.0 tools.  I visit other schools and other classrooms to see what they are doing.  I want to get feedback on my ideas.  I do that without 2.0 tools.  I send e-mails, write paper, set up conference times, visit over the lunch table in the teacher’s lounge.  I have teachers in my building who share my interests and can give me advice.

But I can only imagine what level all of the aforementioned collaboration is multiplied when I enter the 2.0 classroom.  And then the power of blogs, wikis, and podcasts hits me all over again.  It is a subtle paradigm shift, but it works for me.

I want to build a learning community for myself.  I want to engage my thinking and educational experiences with the world….it will just take me a minute.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.