Organic Learning

My colleagues and I met yesterday to explore the Obstacles to Opportunities strand of the K-12 Online Conference 2007.

For homework, we were to have watched the Keynote presentation by Brian Crosby. Since only one had seen the presentation (done their homework), I decided to play it for about 30 minutes. I think that keynote is one of the best from the conference. Brian invites us to see what a classroom can look like when a teacher understands the importance of meeting the needs of every child in his classroom. I really appreciate his sense of humor and genuine heartfelt emotion as he explains how technology has made a difference in his classroom. I HAD to play the video! I was afraid they wouldn’t have a chance to watch it otherwise. I think it had the same impression on them as it does on me when I watch it - genuine belief that even here in NCLB land (the US), great things can happen in the classroom despite the mandates, pacing plans and constant assessments. Brian gives us inspiration!

After watching some of the keynote, we were ready to break in groups and watch some presentations then report back to the group. There was a unanimous decision for all 5 of us to pick one video and watch it together. They chose the one on professional development by Sylvia Martinez, but the sound was not too good, and it was hard to watch on a big screen. So we chose the presentation called “Crossing the Copyright Boundary in the Digital Age” by Karen Richardson. We watched the short introduction, took part of the Copyright quiz by Hal Davidson, and watched a Creative Commons video. Most knew about copyright in the digital age, but found some of the presentation resourceful. To demonstrate our learning from the New Tools strand, especially the presentation called Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools by Liza Kolb, we set up a low tech podcast using Gabcast and a telephone.

All we did was set up an account on Gabcast, set up a new channel, then called in using the toll free 1-800 number, and followed directions to post a new episode for each person who talked. I could see that my colleagues were excited about the possibilities of using this tool in the classroom. Podcasting doesn’t have to take a lot of time. You also don’t you need expensive equipment to give students an opportunity to practice their oral and reading skills. It was great fun. It’s amazing how the newest tools become easier and easier to use. Here’s our podcast.

(FYI, I figured out how to embed flash players in Wordpress. I used a plugin called CoolPlayer. After installing in it my wordpress plugin directory, a flash button appeared in my editor. After clicking that, I copied the url of the flash file in the box, put in the size I wanted and viola! I’m learning little by little. )