I have been following Tweets and blog postings about NECC since early this spring and I have never seen so much excitement from teachers about collaborating, learning, growing and exploring great ideas. If only the non-tech teachers, administrators and community in which we work could see this excitement. They would have pride in their schools and what is taking place in classrooms that they did not know about. They would be so surprised at the activities that their first, second, and third graders could accomplish with web2.0 tools. They would enjoy watching students collaborate on worldwide projects. They would rejoice at the research projects on world hunger, environmental issues and students ideas and actions for saving the planet.
How do we tell the world about all of this enthusiasm? I wish they could see the Twitter, Plurk, Ning, blogs, Diigo, webinars, backchannels, Coveritlive, more, more, more, that has evolved from teachers who love what they do. It is easy to get pumped up about using one new tech tip in your life or classroom. It was fun to see people bring their geeky"ist" toy and have others Ohhhh-Ahhhh over it. That is contagious!
So I am borrowing a thought from Lisa Parisi's blog "Lisa's Lingo and making a summer list. I am also going to put on paper, er - blog, those simple tricks I want to pass on to teachers in my school. Furthermore, I have written that Jott is a great tool to start your administrators using web2.0 tools. I am going to go the next step and find a few more web2.0 tools for them to use this year. Tonight I ponder what those lists and tools will be.
But even better, I am going to commit to offering a tool tip on our web page and PTO newsletter web page. Why should keep all of our fun toys, I mean tools so secret from the parents in our community. Surely by sharing these tools we will be sharing the enthusiasm.
Pay it forward.
Photo by Lucy Gray at Edubloggercon, Saturday June 29,2008
1 comments:
BethStill said...
Robin,
You said exactly what has been on my mind! Non-tech teachers are missing out on so much. I had no idea there was this entire connected world of like-minded educators until I joined the NECC Ning back in the spring. I have made connections there that are so important to me. I met a couple of people through the Ning then at NECC that I think of as friends now. A group of us should collaborate to make a short 8-10 minute long video to share on TeacherTube about the benefits and rewards of networking and collaborating. My career is so much more meaningful now that I am part of a PLC. Thank you!!!