Week 3 Reflections

ISTE NETS
I remember the days of writing technology standards/expectations for each grade. They usually included pretty precise skills and even programs. Looking at ISTE's standards, you can see that indeed educational technology tools were more the focus a decade ago. Social learning/thinking activities including innovation, problem solving, communicating & research are now the focus. The tools are dynamic and accessible. The goals are common to all areas of education. I find in my own practice that despite the frustrating glitches that take me time to work out later, in class my focus on a particular tool or program is actually pretty minimal . The kids have the skills to find their way through all sorts of different tools, the tools themselves are accessible & similar enough and things work well enough that we can focus on the more complex issues of researching information, building understanding, working out what to do with it and how to communicate--the focus of education.

Geeking out in specialized networks
The fact that we're not focusing on the tools shows we're really only using new media to hang out in our academic community in my classroom. Rarely messing around and certainly not geeking out as described in this week's section of the Digital Youth Project Report. I like the potential of students participating in and sharing/building expertise with peers in interest-based digital communities, but I can't yet see it within the boundaries of my classroom/class time. Something from class could initiate students heading off on their own towards deeper levels of participation just as students form groups that later form into garage bands outside of school. In some ways, we currently use resources like wikis, blogs, voicethread and video production inside sheltered environments like school blogs, school based google accounts & Panthernet resources to begin to safely simulate this kind of participation.
It's the age old problem of trying to educate in the context of meaningful authentic experiences connected to the real world but within a sheltered, safe learning environment. As students bring more connectivity into school, we'll find ourselves testing these waters more than ever before. When I was in school you could stare out the window or sneak in a comic book inside your text book, but that was about it. There was little access to and pretty much no participating in the world beyond the school walls till the bell rang. Both are possible now and both are becoming readily available to kids throughout their day in school. There are lots of interesting new challenges in the days ahead!

An authentic unit of inquiry following the backwards design process which reaches at least one of our core content standards as well as at least one of the NETs Standards for students: Coming soon!