Since Halloween is right around the corner, I've tried to work in the R.I.P. theme into this post.
But before trying to explain that, I want to share a great resource for teachers at Edmodo.com. With 3.5 million users, I think I'm one of the last ones to join the Edmodo environment. Edmodo is a safe (secure, protected) social network that teachers can create for their classes, and then share resources (threaded discussions, texts, etc.) with students. In addition, it's a tremendous resource for teachers networking with other teachers. There are a host of groups (math, etc.) within Edmodo for teachers to join.
Check it out. It's free.
Now onto my symbolic RIP request...
Having just come out of a two-day workshop on excellence within a 21st Century School, I got to spend a good deal of time with our (American International School of Budapest) Middle School tech intergrationist, Bill Farren.
Bill won't mind me saying that we are doing a disservice to technology when we continue to refer to "tech integration". Are we still stuck in a mindset that has us create compelling units and then think of technology as some after-thought that we should add in order to satisfy others that the unit is cutting edge? When we think of tech integration as some after-thought we missing the more exciting question of how effective are we using technology.
Did our teacher-ancestors speak in terms of white-board integration? Or, ball point pen integration?
21st Century skills are asking students (and schools) to be effective users of technology. When we start to think of those outcomes (or any outcomes), we only need to ask if technology will help us get there? Often times it will, but lets bury the technology integration label once and for all.
Bill, we'll work on getting some new business cards soon.
