In this edition of the podcast, I explore some of my frustrations lately regarding some pushback I’m seeing as I facilitate some teacher research in my school district. I also wander through some first draft thinking on why that pushback exists.
I welcome your comments and suggestions, as always.
Today’s podcast is an excerpt of Troy and Sara and my Reports from Cyberspace conversation at NCTE’s 2010 Annual Convention. Specifically, this is my prepared section of the presentation, which I’ve called “Infrastructure Matters.”
Infrastructure does matter, and it’s never been more important to make sure that the conditions for learning exist in every element of an education organization. I hope that my remarks get to the heart of how I try to model that in my work supporting teaching and learning here in Colorado.
As always, would love to hear your thoughts about the content of the presentation. I’m sure there’s something that I’ve missed. Let me know in the comments.
On a related note, I just want to express my continued appreciation for Sara and Troy as colleagues and thinking partners. I look forward to continuing to learn from and with them. They’re smart people, and I hope they’re on your radar.1
The thrust of our invitation for others’ reports from cyberspace was that conferences shouldn’t be endpoints, but waypoints, times to recharge and retool before heading out into the work again. I hope that our session was useful to folks. I’ll know that it was as I see work emerge from it. Talk’s fine. It’s useful. But it’s not enough.
Hard work matters, too.
Direct Link to the Video Version
Direct Link to the Audio Version
In this podcast, recorded on my last day at the NCTE Annual Convention, I share a recording of a listening session hosted by NCTE. In the session, the U.S. Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach, Peter Cunningham, represents the Department. He took questions for most of the session, and I found the conversation fascinating.
I am grateful for the opportunity to be in conversation with our government, and I hope that you are making efforts to be in conversation with your public officials.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the conversation. I’ll share two short observations. First, I found that there were many issues raised by the questioners in the audience. Thoughtful ones, in many cases. But it seems that what was heard was simply “we (meaning educators) want less testing.” That’s a gross oversimplification of the issues expressed. I do hope that the US Department of Education is listening just a little more carefully1
I’d also reiterate my eagerness to see the specifics of the National Ed Tech Plan implementation. Right now, it’s a fine plan. How will it be implemented?2
In tonight’s podcast, recording on the way home from a thoughtful meeting, I talk a little bit about a project I’ve been working on, how it’s reminding me about how tools get made and then make the people who use them, and what that might mean for some online school development in the school district where I work. Specifically, I talk my way through some of a conversation that Michelle and I had this morning about what an online school could look like, and how that thinking relates to some of my thoughts on democratic online schools.
As always, I’d welcome your thoughts, and would love to learn more about the online schools that you are a part of, or wish you were. I’ll admit – this is some serious first draft thinking. Help me make it into a solid second draft.
In today’s podcast, recorded during my drive home from ISTE’s final activities, I talk a bit about Tuesday and Wednesday of the conference. There’s talk of the filtering panel I was fortunate to get to sit on, Howard Rheingold’s resources on crap detection, and also some of my thinking about how we must work to model the things that we want to see in our schools. Always. I thought ISTE was a good and useful conference. Thanks to those of you who made it so for me.
In this podcast, recorded on my way in to the ISTE 2010 conference this morning, I talk through my conference experience so far. I mention the Leadership Bootcamp, some of Chris’s thoughts about events like those, a conversation I’m having with Dean about digital writing, and some other highlights, as well as a concern I have about how we (don’t) read so well, perhaps.
On today’s podcast, I attempt to answer a series of Twitter questions from Nawal about how to promote writing environments that help students to write connectively (as Will calls it.) I also rant a bit about “blogging units” (I’m against ‘em.) Somewhere in there, I reference George Hillocks’ really excellent metaanalysis of composition instruction studies (PDF) and Stephen Downes’ recent talk in Buenos Aires, as well as Troy’s book, The Digital Writing Workshop. I hope it helps, Nawal.
Looking forward to your thoughts, as always.
Today’s podcast, recorded last week, is a response to some comments on the “learning is social” conversation. I’ll let you give that a listen, then let’s talk some more. Next up for me, in this conversation, is Claudia’s post. I’m still working through Stephen’s thoughts on the subject, spoken just before and transcribed and published just after I wrote the social learning piece. Interesting conversation. I’m learning, I think.
You?
In today’s podcast, recorded on my way into town this morning, I talk about some of my learning and thinking from Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation. Specifically, it’s a chance to respond to a question Zac sent my way regarding just what I meant when I said in my presentation on show and tell that you can choose how much is enough when it comes to transparency, or words to that effect. Yeah. It bothered me, too, when I said it, but not because I’m wrong. I think. Listen to the podcast and let me know what you think.
If you get a chance, take a few minutes to read the responses to the writing prompt from the session. I’m still digging through them. Thoughtful.
Today’s podcast, recorded on my drive in to Longmont this morning, is a quick brain dump of several of the things that I’m thinking about as I head into new baby time. Mostly for me, this was an attempt to capture some ideas before they slipped away as well as to offer the change for you, dear readers and listeners, to set me straight. As always, appreciate your time.