Learning, Teaching & Technology

Today is the last session of our 1.5 credit course for six Yarmouth teachers who have been exploring blogs, wikis, photo sharing, voicethreads and expanding current teacher web pages and presentations into new directions. This is a subgroup of a class of 14 teachers who have made a commitment to participate in 19 hours of professional development focused on using technology to support learning and teaching. The morning has been time to work together, ask questions and prepare for sharing progress toward individual goals with the rest of the group in the afternoon.

The sharing among the six participants today seemed to flow from one project and set of ideas neatly into the next as we worked on qualities of design, engagement by students, facilitation of student work with coaching from teachers, rubrics, quality indicators and the fun that can be part of exploring and creating in new ways. We recorded the sharing to the class wiki at http://yarmouthspring08.wikispaces.com/Final+Day+Sharing.

I will be developing a feedback query for course participants in the coming week and I will put it out in draft form on email.

I leave this day warmed by the collaboration between and among the teachers involved, regardless of grade level or subject matter. Each teacher exceeded her/his goal set at the beginning of this course and I know the learning and questioning will continue.

Cathy

Tomorrow is the first day of our 1.5 credit technology course in Yarmouth for K-12 educators learning to do “New Things in New Ways”. The Web 2.0 tools for communicating and collaborating are changing the boundaries of school and learning at every level. I’ve spent the last few days wandering to nings, blogs, podcasts and even live webcasts gathering resources for this group of teachers. Their goals will direct each of them on the path toward their own next learning. We’ll see what collaboration develops within the class and out into the realm of edubloggers and connecting teachers. Alice Barr and I are teaching together, our course wiki is at http://yarmouthspring08.wikispaces.com.