Reflecting on Day 1

“I’m so glad we’re talking about education”

At least three people told me this today….and go figure at an educational conference we talk education. During the IT Directors Job-A-Like we talked tools…which is where that conversation belongs. But in the sessions we need to be focused on education, on student learning and on creating cultures of innovation and creativity.

Is a culture of innovation and creativity something that we treasure within our classrooms? If it is, how do we foster it and not crush it within our classrooms?

I strongly feel technology plays a large role in helping to foster creativity. What a computer, the Internet, and all the software allows us to do is create. Whether it be a book, a video, or a song. Technology allows us to be creative and innovative.

Somewhere along the line we have lost our way with technology. We stopped at a place where it replaced things we were doing. We use to hold meeting to cover nuts and bolts issues. Now we use e-mail. We use to have students write pages and pages of essays, now they type them in easy to read font. When the Internet came along we saw its use in schools as a research tool. As a way to tap into the wealth of information found there. But as the second revolution of the web is upon us (Web 2.0) are we taking advantage of the new tools or are we still stuck in old ways of thinking?

Let’s take YouTube for example. We continually debate whether or not the content there is valuable instead of thinking about the site as a way to create and share videos, which was it’s original intent (and still is!).

We continually debate Wikipedia and the content found there instead of thinking about it as a place to create, edit, share, and engage in conversation around a given topic.

“We knew that the community would trumps content”

A great quote from one of the founders of the Internet as he and a team of really smart people created the connections that we all use back in 1969. What those connections do is allow us to communicate and create communities. They allow us to create and share content, to the point that it has revolutionized the world we lived in, and created a global economy.

This is where the deeper learning lies with technology. Not simply to replace old tasks with new ones but to create whole new tasks. To create learning communities that we could not do before, and to communicate in ways that lead to deeper understanding. What it allows is whole new schools. Whole new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Ways in which are uncomfortable, for those of use that grew up in a system we know and love. A system that worked for us, and therefore it must work for our students as well. The world has changed, we see it on a daily basis. Right down to how we all ended up here from all over Asia at this conference. Our world is changing……are we?

Categories: Thoughts  |  Tags: creativity, technology, web 2.0  |  No Comments »