The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) is a technology that promises to truly transform the classroom and yet is seen as a threat or a waste of money by many teachers. Their views range from luddite, regarding the introduction of any teaching technology as unnecessarily contaminating the classroom to the (more reasonable) preoccupation that this tool will lead to a overly teacher-focused environment and a group of learners passively sitting dazzled by the bells and whistles used by the sage on the stage.
It doesn't have to be that way though. In this post, I will reflect upon the recent discussion on the Dogme (teaching unplugged) list about the pros and cons of IWBs, and put forward the view that the key to a successful IWB implementation is in the training, something which seems to be missing when many organisations unpack and install these shiny new toys.
Before I continue, let's stop and take a look at the tool itself. There are many different types of IWBs, but features are similar (consult the Wikipedia entry on Interactive Whiteboards for further details).
The market leaders at the moment are Promethean, Smart and Mimio. These manufacturers make IWBs which have similar features (but with some important distinctions) but it is important to note that the software used by each company is not compatible. Thus, the first important decision to make before buying is which one to choose.
Smart technologies seems to have been around the longest and is very common in the USA, and this is why many people still call IWBs Smartboards, but this is the equivalent to calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover.
Promethean appears to have gained more ground recently and is very popular in the UK and Australia. The British Council (my employer - I should declare now that I have a bias for Promethean boards because they are the ones I have used the most), for example, is installing ACTIVBoards in many of their teaching centres around the world.
Mimio seems to have become popular of late because they offer the possibility of turning regular whiteboards into IWBs, thus being a lower cost solution. I have no direct experience of the Mimio system, but I do know colleagues who have tried it and were not that impressed.
Apart from the hardware, careful attention should be paid to the software, how it works and how it is supported. This is the key to IWB functionality and makes the big difference between using an IWB or a data projector (beamer) and a standard whiteboard. Most IWB software works like a combination between a graphics package and presentation software (e.g. Powerpoint). Certainly, teachers who have used graphics software before have a much easier time than those who haven't.
What differences are there between software? Much is down to look and feel, but, for example, you can write on a smartboard with your finger, but need a special pen to write on a Promethean ACTIVboard.
Software support is important too: Promethean, for example, offers online training and accreditation and a user site, Promethean Planet, whose forums (where teachers share resources, tips and ideas) are second to none. An important reason why the British Council chose the Promethean IWB system was because the licence includes the ability to install the software on their home computers (so they can plan from home) and a free student version (view only) which means they can review flipcharts (what the Promethean IWB created materials are called) at home.
It wasn't the first time that the subject of IWBs had appeared in the Dogme list. Previously, in April 2007, Alan Pulverness had mentioned that there was a tendency for "the technology to
produce a more frontal style of teaching, and consequently fewer opportunities for genuine interaction."
I think this is true if teachers are let loose without any training on how to use the IWB effectively. One of the ironic things about the IWB is that although it resembles a tool that is familiar to all teachers, it requires a sea change in methodology if it is to be used optimally in the classroom. Of course, you can use it in the same way as any other (black or white) board (i.e. by walking into class and writing on it without any prior preparation), but this is akin to using a truck to drive to the corner shop for groceries and coming back home with a bottle of milk and a tin of baked beans.
Strangely enough, writing on an IWB during class time takes longer than on a regular whiteboard, and you'll probably not be able to fit as much on the board. And as for those teachers who are used to sectioning a board with part for class agenda and space for vocabulary? This is a waste of space and time on the IWB, especially as you have unlimited number of pages to flip back and forth through whenever you want. And there's no need to make students wait while you write something from a coursebook on the board - you should have done that before the students even entered the room. Breaking old teacher habits that have no place and make no sense when using this tool is as important as experimenting with new ways of using it.
It should come as no surprise that training and practice are the keys to using the IWB effectively. The interactive whiteboard is not cheap technology, but this is one of the hidden costs. Another is a need for increased technical support in situ, but as far as learner impact is concerned, the sure way to drive a stake through the heart of an IWB project is to try to cut costs in training. But, because it looks like a reglular board, there is a temptation for organisations to hand teachers a pen and let them get on with it. This results in the learners losing out.
Back to the Dogme discussion . Browsing the other posts written by members of the Dogme list about IWBs, it becomes clear that some of these teachers have had as much experience of and interest in using an interactive whiteboard as Paolo Freire had of playing with a Nintendo Gameboy. Then there are others that have formed opinions based on observing sales reps. giving ten minute demonstrations of the technology at conferences. The negative "seems to be used for presenting grammar mcnuggets" view is hardly surprising given the kind of ELT publisher materials available I suppose. Only one or two of these people seem to have based their opinions on actual teacher observation (albeit cursory observation, i.e. saw a teacher through a window...). And most interestingly, those of us who have actually used an IWB were positive about the potential.
So, what was the result of all this debate? I'm pleased to say that some of the Dogme die-hards have been prompted to take another look at the technology. And if we can persuade organisations to invest more in training teachers how to use the interactive whiteboard well, then this will do a great favour to teachers and learners who find themselves having to use it. Will all teachers have to use one in the future? Who knows? I have started to see "experience in using an IWB" appearing in some of the job advertisements for teachers, and I think we will see more of this in the future. So long as the potential of this fabulous tool is not wasted by misuse and methodological abuse.
Note: Please feel free to contact me for IWB training offers
_______________________________________________________
Further Reading / References
Follow the Dogme discussions on using the IWB in a learner-centred way here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard
Using the Interactive White Board in EFL - a blog I started in 2005. I've been encouraged by this experience to started posting here again
Promethean/Mirandanet project report on interactive whiteboard use worldwide : http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/partners/promethean_iwb.htm
It doesn't have to be that way though. In this post, I will reflect upon the recent discussion on the Dogme (teaching unplugged) list about the pros and cons of IWBs, and put forward the view that the key to a successful IWB implementation is in the training, something which seems to be missing when many organisations unpack and install these shiny new toys.
- A good workman never blames his tools
Before I continue, let's stop and take a look at the tool itself. There are many different types of IWBs, but features are similar (consult the Wikipedia entry on Interactive Whiteboards for further details).
The market leaders at the moment are Promethean, Smart and Mimio. These manufacturers make IWBs which have similar features (but with some important distinctions) but it is important to note that the software used by each company is not compatible. Thus, the first important decision to make before buying is which one to choose.
Smart technologies seems to have been around the longest and is very common in the USA, and this is why many people still call IWBs Smartboards, but this is the equivalent to calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover.
Promethean appears to have gained more ground recently and is very popular in the UK and Australia. The British Council (my employer - I should declare now that I have a bias for Promethean boards because they are the ones I have used the most), for example, is installing ACTIVBoards in many of their teaching centres around the world.
Mimio seems to have become popular of late because they offer the possibility of turning regular whiteboards into IWBs, thus being a lower cost solution. I have no direct experience of the Mimio system, but I do know colleagues who have tried it and were not that impressed.
Apart from the hardware, careful attention should be paid to the software, how it works and how it is supported. This is the key to IWB functionality and makes the big difference between using an IWB or a data projector (beamer) and a standard whiteboard. Most IWB software works like a combination between a graphics package and presentation software (e.g. Powerpoint). Certainly, teachers who have used graphics software before have a much easier time than those who haven't.
What differences are there between software? Much is down to look and feel, but, for example, you can write on a smartboard with your finger, but need a special pen to write on a Promethean ACTIVboard.
Software support is important too: Promethean, for example, offers online training and accreditation and a user site, Promethean Planet, whose forums (where teachers share resources, tips and ideas) are second to none. An important reason why the British Council chose the Promethean IWB system was because the licence includes the ability to install the software on their home computers (so they can plan from home) and a free student version (view only) which means they can review flipcharts (what the Promethean IWB created materials are called) at home.
- Interactive White Elephant
It wasn't the first time that the subject of IWBs had appeared in the Dogme list. Previously, in April 2007, Alan Pulverness had mentioned that there was a tendency for "the technology to
produce a more frontal style of teaching, and consequently fewer opportunities for genuine interaction."
I think this is true if teachers are let loose without any training on how to use the IWB effectively. One of the ironic things about the IWB is that although it resembles a tool that is familiar to all teachers, it requires a sea change in methodology if it is to be used optimally in the classroom. Of course, you can use it in the same way as any other (black or white) board (i.e. by walking into class and writing on it without any prior preparation), but this is akin to using a truck to drive to the corner shop for groceries and coming back home with a bottle of milk and a tin of baked beans.
Strangely enough, writing on an IWB during class time takes longer than on a regular whiteboard, and you'll probably not be able to fit as much on the board. And as for those teachers who are used to sectioning a board with part for class agenda and space for vocabulary? This is a waste of space and time on the IWB, especially as you have unlimited number of pages to flip back and forth through whenever you want. And there's no need to make students wait while you write something from a coursebook on the board - you should have done that before the students even entered the room. Breaking old teacher habits that have no place and make no sense when using this tool is as important as experimenting with new ways of using it.
It should come as no surprise that training and practice are the keys to using the IWB effectively. The interactive whiteboard is not cheap technology, but this is one of the hidden costs. Another is a need for increased technical support in situ, but as far as learner impact is concerned, the sure way to drive a stake through the heart of an IWB project is to try to cut costs in training. But, because it looks like a reglular board, there is a temptation for organisations to hand teachers a pen and let them get on with it. This results in the learners losing out.
Back to the Dogme discussion . Browsing the other posts written by members of the Dogme list about IWBs, it becomes clear that some of these teachers have had as much experience of and interest in using an interactive whiteboard as Paolo Freire had of playing with a Nintendo Gameboy. Then there are others that have formed opinions based on observing sales reps. giving ten minute demonstrations of the technology at conferences. The negative "seems to be used for presenting grammar mcnuggets" view is hardly surprising given the kind of ELT publisher materials available I suppose. Only one or two of these people seem to have based their opinions on actual teacher observation (albeit cursory observation, i.e. saw a teacher through a window...). And most interestingly, those of us who have actually used an IWB were positive about the potential.
- Conclusions
So, what was the result of all this debate? I'm pleased to say that some of the Dogme die-hards have been prompted to take another look at the technology. And if we can persuade organisations to invest more in training teachers how to use the interactive whiteboard well, then this will do a great favour to teachers and learners who find themselves having to use it. Will all teachers have to use one in the future? Who knows? I have started to see "experience in using an IWB" appearing in some of the job advertisements for teachers, and I think we will see more of this in the future. So long as the potential of this fabulous tool is not wasted by misuse and methodological abuse.
Note: Please feel free to contact me for IWB training offers
_______________________________________________________
Further Reading / References
Follow the Dogme discussions on using the IWB in a learner-centred way here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard
Schmid, E. Cutrim : Investigating the Use of Interactive Whiteboard Technology in the English Language Classroom through the Lens of a Critical Theory of Technology
Using the Interactive White Board in EFL - a blog I started in 2005. I've been encouraged by this experience to started posting here again
Promethean/Mirandanet project report on interactive whiteboard use worldwide : http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/partners/promethean_iwb.htm
My research habits have changed considerably over the past few years. Due to my job I can’t spend too much time in the library anymore. More and more resources are online these days, which can make it hard to organize them.
I find the Firefox extension Zotero very useful for staying organized and not missing all [...]
For those of us who were brought up typing papers on computers and whose handwriting subsequently looks like chickenscratch (hey, I can read it), handwriting recognition may never be an option. But the rest of you might be one step closer; IOGEAR has recently released a digital pen that may make handwriting recognition easier and [...]
One of the reasons I haven't been blogging so much is because of the increased time I've been spending in Second Life, but I'm determined to get back to blogging again. More than anything else, I miss it. But blogging is also such a useful tool for sounding out ideas. Which brings me to...
The main project I'm working on in Second Life is in the teen grid and, is looking more like a language learning laboratory for testing out different ideas. Among the experiments we're adding is mystery in the form of an alternate reality game.
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs)
One of the most successful of ARGs was ILoveBees, which was used to promote the XBox game Halo2. A very clever marketing campaign, this game ignited the enthusiasm of a large community on the web, who worked together to solve the cross-media puzzles contained in the game.
There are useful lessons here for educators: For example, Lingualgamers mentions "the levels of teamwork required for the massively social tasks presented in ILoveBees provided one of the most fertile grounds for peer learning possible."
Ligualgamers goes on to suggest that by "studying the learning that takes place in alternate reality games we can gain valuable insights into how to create engaging experiences around web content from other languages and cultures."
to be continued...
The main project I'm working on in Second Life is in the teen grid and, is looking more like a language learning laboratory for testing out different ideas. Among the experiments we're adding is mystery in the form of an alternate reality game.
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs)
One of the most successful of ARGs was ILoveBees, which was used to promote the XBox game Halo2. A very clever marketing campaign, this game ignited the enthusiasm of a large community on the web, who worked together to solve the cross-media puzzles contained in the game.
There are useful lessons here for educators: For example, Lingualgamers mentions "the levels of teamwork required for the massively social tasks presented in ILoveBees provided one of the most fertile grounds for peer learning possible."
Ligualgamers goes on to suggest that by "studying the learning that takes place in alternate reality games we can gain valuable insights into how to create engaging experiences around web content from other languages and cultures."
to be continued...
Just a brief post for those that haven’t seen it - the excellent Comic Life will soon be released for Windows (it has been a Mac exclusive for some time). They have just released the third beta today, if you’re interested.
URL: Comic Life Windows B3
Comic Life lets you easily create comics, which are great as [...]
So I was in the office on a Saturday trying to get caught up on stuff from the week before (note to Pete: not only did it rain last week…we got 10 inches of rain in two days and oh boy it has not been pretty in my basement for about a week now) [...]
Upcoming Shows! (dates may change and if they do they will be noted here)
September 6: LLU #21: Language learners and Anxiety: Elaine Horwitz, University of Texas-Austin, on anxiety and second language learning as well as her recent book “Becoming a Language Teacher:A Practical Guide to Second Language Learning and Teaching” Dr Horwitz’ [...]
Apparently Skype is having problems… according to their website, logging in and downloading of Skype software has been temporarily disabled and will be for the next 12 - 24 hours.
No word yet on whether this will affect tonight’s scheduled broadcast … I’m hopeful they can fix this in less than twelve hours, but I’m [...]
Thank you to all of you who posted here about your use of Skype in the Language Classroom…the article in the CSM is now in print.
But let’s be clear here…Let’s not be seduced by the tools…we still need F2F classroom experiences to make the Skype experiences meaningful…
Thanks to all who helped out!
This show has been postponed (see this post for more details)
Please join us on August 16 at 8 p.m. EDT: Elaine Horwitz, University of Texas-Austin, on anxiety and second language learning as well as her recent book “Becoming a Language Teacher:A Practical Guide to Second Language Learning and Teaching” Dr Horwitz’ work was recently [...]
I would be really interested to know how many other edubloggers got this email sometime in the past few months…
Dear XXXXX,
I’m contacting you on behalf of Sky Radio Network, the nation’s leading inflight media company, in regards to our upcoming “Innovation in Education” talk radio show airing worldwide on American Airlines during January 2008.
This special [...]
For all you iPhone fanboys and -girls…
The German company Shape Services has just announced a beta version of IM+ for Skype that supports iPhone hardware. Non-beta versions are already available for Blackberries, handhelds running PalmOS, and Windows Mobile Pocket PCs (among others). Maybe this will help nudge Skype to speed up development on future Skype-for-OSX [...]
Happy Tuesday everybody! Here’s this week’s episode:
Download audio file (Techo_Tuesday_3.mp3)
(or right-click here to download the file.)
For this week’s episode, Felix and I reviewed several free and/or open-source audio recording tools for your use:
Audacity
DL Recorder
GarageBand (Mac OS X only)
Audio Recorder (Mac OS X only)
Windows Sound Recorder (Windows only)
We also mentioned a couple of free audio conversion [...]
With all the new Apple software that was released today (check out the new iWork and iLife suites), I thought I’d share one of my favorite programs to enhance your presentation.
Omnidazzle (Mac only) adds a layer over your desktop and gives you all sorts of tools. You can focus on certain elements using a searchlight [...]
The EFL Course Wiki as a Writers Community
A Paperless Classroom
When students just hand in papers to teachers they simply lose touch with the writer's reality: you belong to a community of writers, bloggers, learners. Focus on certification exams used to make my students a bit of islands to themselves. My students this year are intrigued about the people who were in my class last year. They know their writings, which appear in the FCE blog. They use those writings as study materials or examples to build upon. They comment on them, reflect on their skills to solve writing problems, filter and write differently -paving the road with corpora for future students.
Writing, reviewing, reflecting
I am not fully exploiting the possibilities of a wiki yet, such as collaboration with other classrooms. I am taking time to learn and see how students receive the innovation, the adoption and resistance game. However, I have never had a class so willing to review and re-write a piece
without my request. Students come back to an assignment even weeks after finishing it. They are experiencing what writing is really about. Nor have I heard students voicing in class so much reflection on the process. The wiki history is revealing of the revision steps; but not the feelings around those alterations. The moments when words just do not come, the haunting idea that it all sounds too simple or foreign. Students learn a lot by voicing and sharing these doubts as well as the documented results on the wiki page.
Network collaboration
As a teacher, I am also going through an analogous learning path. I read educational blogs daily, comment and jot down ideas to publish in this professional development blog. Twitter -a microblogging tool- has allowed a closer contact and much more interconnectedness with nodes in my network. It is a place where trivia appears interleaved with questions or simply thinking aloud while you plan lessons or do your job.
A matter of collocations
This afternoon I read a question from Gardner Campbell, a professor of English in Virginia, United States. He needed a verb to collocate with a specific noun. A daily question for those who teach or translate from English. Collocations are the toughest points to learn at an advanced level. Dictionaries guide, but they do not always close the debate. We tend to have long conversations about how to learn them in class.
Gardner records in his blog how my answer triggered off thoughts and another quest for learning. To my surprise, Gardner's curiosity took him right to corpus linguistics and to the notion of collocation. His reflections on the teaching and learning implications could not have come closer to the idea underpinning my class wiki project.
Shared, published and shared again
To make things even more interesting, roughly at the same time Gardner was writing his post, I was in class answering a question: What does the university do with all the exams they collect from students every year? (about 200,000 from all round the world). They do not come back to students. They belong to the university. They are certainly the basis for corpora creation, future modifications of the exam and course books as well as dictionaries for them. But they are private and we cannot have access.
Then I explained why our class wiki is called Corpus and why we are sharing with the world our samples of "English as a foreign language". Back home in the evening, I find that Gardner's post is a good synthesis that my students could understand. I automatically decided to write this 'answer' post.
Gardner shared a thought on the concept of collocation: “what a great way to start a conversation about language with native speakers.” That reminded me of my students when they say 'I heard this or that in a film'. It would be most helpful to have some podcast from native speakers discussing why a combination of words sounds funny or right and start a discussion in class. It had not occurred to me a native speaker would consider it so interesting. This exchange with my network has helped me to see alternatives to plan how to connect dialogues with native speakers and the curricular needs of my course. Minimal exchange, yet so significant.
Technology enabled learning
Learning is quite unexpected. It is an experience not always subject to schedule. Different tools combined can make the here and now a classroom. A collaborative attitude in front of the screen, a will to share and let other people's thoughts be the vehicle for learning are base requirements. Lifelong learning has to do with paying attention to those teachable moments that pull our minds instead of relying only on artificially recreated -'walled'- learning.
Gardner says,
Conclusions
I think it is very important for future students to get in touch with the online artifacts created by the previous class. These previous steps not only give them an idea of what is expected at a given learning stage, but also makes them see themselves as part of a community of writers where they belong. No writer in real life is born out of nothing. You need to read others to find your own voice. Then you go out again and try to meet other voices to learn collaboration in a flat world.
It is hard to envision those changes in a classroom if teachers do not assign time to their own self-guided learning journeys. Time to read, comment and publish their reflections in blogs. Time to be online and available for a serendipitous exchange. Students can grasp better this kind of education when teachers are having similar learning experiences in their own professional development efforts.
Tools per se do not distill learning. It is technology coupled with inquiry-driven minds; curious, connected passionate people, able to make anytime, anywhere an optimal learning environment.
So much to learn yet. I feel I am just standing at the threshold of the idea of a 'wikified' class.
(Edited on 2 September 2007)
A Paperless Classroom
When students just hand in papers to teachers they simply lose touch with the writer's reality: you belong to a community of writers, bloggers, learners. Focus on certification exams used to make my students a bit of islands to themselves. My students this year are intrigued about the people who were in my class last year. They know their writings, which appear in the FCE blog. They use those writings as study materials or examples to build upon. They comment on them, reflect on their skills to solve writing problems, filter and write differently -paving the road with corpora for future students.
Writing, reviewing, reflecting
I am not fully exploiting the possibilities of a wiki yet, such as collaboration with other classrooms. I am taking time to learn and see how students receive the innovation, the adoption and resistance game. However, I have never had a class so willing to review and re-write a piece
without my request. Students come back to an assignment even weeks after finishing it. They are experiencing what writing is really about. Nor have I heard students voicing in class so much reflection on the process. The wiki history is revealing of the revision steps; but not the feelings around those alterations. The moments when words just do not come, the haunting idea that it all sounds too simple or foreign. Students learn a lot by voicing and sharing these doubts as well as the documented results on the wiki page.Network collaboration
As a teacher, I am also going through an analogous learning path. I read educational blogs daily, comment and jot down ideas to publish in this professional development blog. Twitter -a microblogging tool- has allowed a closer contact and much more interconnectedness with nodes in my network. It is a place where trivia appears interleaved with questions or simply thinking aloud while you plan lessons or do your job.
A matter of collocations
This afternoon I read a question from Gardner Campbell, a professor of English in Virginia, United States. He needed a verb to collocate with a specific noun. A daily question for those who teach or translate from English. Collocations are the toughest points to learn at an advanced level. Dictionaries guide, but they do not always close the debate. We tend to have long conversations about how to learn them in class.
Gardner records in his blog how my answer triggered off thoughts and another quest for learning. To my surprise, Gardner's curiosity took him right to corpus linguistics and to the notion of collocation. His reflections on the teaching and learning implications could not have come closer to the idea underpinning my class wiki project.
Shared, published and shared again
To make things even more interesting, roughly at the same time Gardner was writing his post, I was in class answering a question: What does the university do with all the exams they collect from students every year? (about 200,000 from all round the world). They do not come back to students. They belong to the university. They are certainly the basis for corpora creation, future modifications of the exam and course books as well as dictionaries for them. But they are private and we cannot have access.
Then I explained why our class wiki is called Corpus and why we are sharing with the world our samples of "English as a foreign language". Back home in the evening, I find that Gardner's post is a good synthesis that my students could understand. I automatically decided to write this 'answer' post.
Gardner shared a thought on the concept of collocation: “what a great way to start a conversation about language with native speakers.” That reminded me of my students when they say 'I heard this or that in a film'. It would be most helpful to have some podcast from native speakers discussing why a combination of words sounds funny or right and start a discussion in class. It had not occurred to me a native speaker would consider it so interesting. This exchange with my network has helped me to see alternatives to plan how to connect dialogues with native speakers and the curricular needs of my course. Minimal exchange, yet so significant.
Technology enabled learning
Learning is quite unexpected. It is an experience not always subject to schedule. Different tools combined can make the here and now a classroom. A collaborative attitude in front of the screen, a will to share and let other people's thoughts be the vehicle for learning are base requirements. Lifelong learning has to do with paying attention to those teachable moments that pull our minds instead of relying only on artificially recreated -'walled'- learning.
Gardner says,
Education should prepare us to notice and enjoy longer and longer trains of thought. That’s another way of talking about connections, yes, but in this case the connections came unexpectedly, within a personal exchange, and using a medium (Twitter) that seems amorphous and aimless, at least at first. And the catalyst was a moment of shared inquiry that spread far beyond the walls of this “classroom.” Not a bad model for education. We need more in-the-moment connectedness as well as more opportunities for shared reflection out of the moment. For me, teaching and learning technologies give us the richest set of possibilities, for both. That was certainly part of the dream of the early pioneers in this field.The learning place is the ever shifting node in our network. From there, you build knowledge and create content to share. The tools are simply the media to facilitate everlasting venues for conversation. The classroom is a place where teachers can make students come closer to a connected world experience. A place where lifelong learning is modeled by teachers who can enter the classroom energised by a recent exchange with their own community of practice and not just share lessons learnt in their college days.
Conclusions
I think it is very important for future students to get in touch with the online artifacts created by the previous class. These previous steps not only give them an idea of what is expected at a given learning stage, but also makes them see themselves as part of a community of writers where they belong. No writer in real life is born out of nothing. You need to read others to find your own voice. Then you go out again and try to meet other voices to learn collaboration in a flat world.
It is hard to envision those changes in a classroom if teachers do not assign time to their own self-guided learning journeys. Time to read, comment and publish their reflections in blogs. Time to be online and available for a serendipitous exchange. Students can grasp better this kind of education when teachers are having similar learning experiences in their own professional development efforts.
Tools per se do not distill learning. It is technology coupled with inquiry-driven minds; curious, connected passionate people, able to make anytime, anywhere an optimal learning environment.
So much to learn yet. I feel I am just standing at the threshold of the idea of a 'wikified' class.
(Edited on 2 September 2007)
HA!
[joyoftech via gizmodo]
Some folks in Venezuela have gotten pretty creative in delivering books to remote villages in the Andes: instead of bookmobiles, use mules! It’s an environmentally friendly simple solution to a big problem, using the resources they already have. But here’s the most ingenious part of the story …
Somehow there is already a limited mobile phone [...]
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