EVERYTHING I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

Talk of a Better Future
"No longer guidance for the future
It will just be genuine insight and inspired potential we experience"
-whiteboard magnetic poem from the Verde Learning Center June 25, 2009


RE: Steve Hargadon's "article" on effective social networks.

Starting a blog reminds me of sending an article off to publication. You have to face critics. Since this class is required to complete coursework for a class I am taking, I really hadn't cared too much if anyone was reading and responding to me. Many of the points Steve makes, such as collaboration, your role as a facilitator to help get the conversation going, and the need for early adapters "adapting" because they can take a leadership role are all the very same things that take place in a good classroom. My challenge is to learn how to manipulate the technology of blogs, BB, wiki, SNS to create this same dynamic. How will I do that? By reading good examples, taking some risks at joining some academic SNS's, gaining some experience in doing these activities and finally, by assessing my learning. Sounds familiar, eh?

Back to the SNS, Mochalive for a moment. This was the group that I wrote about and joined yesterday to learn Italian. Today, there was a name in my email wanting me to assess another member's English. Very cool! However, I wondered if anyone is monitoring all this. I also recall my joy at getting one of my middle schoolers to read a book on caligraphy only to learn from my colleague that the student was using it for his gang graffiti! As educators, do we question how the knowledge gained from an SNS will be used? What do you think? (example: What if someone unknowingly taught English to someone who ends up being a member of a terrorist group? ... Maybe I should be writing spy novels