I've been slow to the web 2.0 world. Once I considered myself a frontiersman, but that was way back in 1982 when personal computers arrived on the scene. (Something happened along the way. Aging, I think, and a calcification of my brain....)
But now that I am connected to Facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. etc. via my iphone, I can see how it is changing the landscape of our minds, our social world, and the entire future of education. (The kids I teach are always connected. I'm the newbie.)
So, it is my own education that I turn to now. The web has enlarged my faculty lounge and I can pick and choose who I wish to spend my free time with. The Edublogs Awards are out so I want to nominate those who have influenced me most of late:
- Best Resource Sharing Blog has to be Jim Burke's English Companion Ning for its sheer scope and accessibility. You can find resources or just answers to questions. The best thing about open nings is the range of conversation. Not everyone has to agree with everyone else and its helpful to have push back on occasion (see below).
Two blogs I never miss are
- Susan Graham's A Place at the Table. She always amazes me with her ability to see connections across all areas of life.
- And the political savvy of Nancy Flanagan's Teacher in a Strange Land. Her antennae is always up on the politics of school policy and she knows all the players. Very informative. I nominate Susan for Best Teacher Blog and Nancy for Best Individual blog.
I still don't get around much in this cyberworld. I've never check the Daily Kos daily, like my husband does. I rarely twitter. After all, I've got a pretty intense day job. But I do worry about some of this new landscape. Are all of us just listening to like-minded people?
That can't be a good thing. When, on occasion, I have stumbled across posts and comments that are decidedly anti-teacher -- even violently hating teachers -- it is like a cold water bath on the tundra. I'm a bit unprepared. But they are out there and we can't all be talking in our own echo chamber all the time, no matter what our issue is.
You're absolutely right--we can't be talking only to each other. I recently did a workshop on teacher leadership in an unnamed state, and heard the teachers (who, presumably, were pursuing leadership in their profession) speaking Teacherese. Saying things like: "Well, if the parents don't care, why should we?" and "If we could get rid of all the testing, teaching would be fun again."
ReplyDeleteI understand where those remarks come from--but we're going to have to do better than that if we want to take control of our own work. Otherwise, we're just whining to each other, going around in circles, and perpetuating our own powerlessness.
Thanks for the nomination!