Monday, February 23, 2009

Self Directed Learning

Sometimes it's hard to practice what you preach. I wanted to share my experience this weekend participating in ED21 Unconference. I spent spent Saturday morning enjoying some very inspiring conversations centered around 21st Century nnovation and education. The different strands presented included 21st Century; learning, teaching, real world, and leading. I was able to help out in connecting the conference with the edtechtalk community through broadcasting the conference live on ustream.tv and was engaged in the chat with both onsite participants and virtual attendees. Here is a link to the recordings http://edtechtalk.com/ed21online

My thoughts about 21st Century innovation and education are; learning starts with me. If I am able to continue to be a life long learner, I am able to model this for my students. I have to understand that my students are learning in a new type of environment and I must constantly evaluate my own teaching and adapt to all the changes and at the same time practice good teaching. In regards to the real world, well I have to prepare my students to participate/collaborate in this new millennium. And finally in leading, Web 2.0 does truly level the playing field. I as a classroom teacher do have a lot to contribute to the conversation. It is my job to get other teachers involved, connect with administrators and outside leaders to collaborate and move forward in education and innovation.

1 comment:

Mr. Kimmi said...

I stopped another teacher in the hallway today, an ESL teacher. I asked her if she had read the adapted version of MArzano's Classroom Instruction That Works, same title, ending "with ESL Students". She said that she had read it. We started talking about the importance of having a community and how experiences, such as reading, are so much more meaningful when we are part of a community doing the same thing. This, I think in an important part of the 21st century and the learning that must take place in it, finding a community to share in the learning experience.

Sad thing is, we both lamented that we felt as though we did not ahve that type of community around us.