Thing #2 - Web 2.0

http://123.writeboard.com/165d0aec0d4a84615/v/new (password: andrea)

Confessions from a 20th Century Learner...
Totally excited about the concept of the writeboard. Obviously signed up for one to use as I made notes on the web 2.0 articles and videos. Set up whiteboard in a separate window. Ready to go. Went back to original window to read article and watch videos. Got interested in information from both and started making copious notes. Finished video and decided to go back to yet another open window to check facebook page. Doing this, noticed the empty writeboard. I had taken all my notes on a piece of paper with a pen. Old habits die hard and/or new habits are hard to be born.

Kids: game 3 1/2 hrs a week, watch tv 16 1/2 hrs a week, use computer 5 1/2 hrs a week
Parents email. Kids test, IM, blog

76% of teachers have never used wikis, blogs, podcasts
14% of teachers let students create with technology once a week. 63% never do.
We must engage these 21 century learners using technology that they are well versed in.

I understand the endless possibilities associated with using web for learning. Feeling mightly restrained by the mountain of district/state curriculum.

I struggle with what to leave out in order to put more "stuff" in--no matter how good the "stuff" is, there still has to be something subtracted when anything is added.

I am feeling conflicted about using the time to maintain a blog when so few of my students and their have computers at home.

Wondering the use in creating a wiki for students to use when they can't use the wiki because they don't have email accounts.

Totally onboard with podcasting (have already done it). Like the idea of using podcasts to demonstrate new math strategies.

Thing #1 - 7 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners

All of my life I have been witness to a person who embodies the very essence of and must be the the living definition for a successful lifelong learner: my mother. She is constantly learning new things and equipping herself with new strategies and skills. Her lift of hobbies is long and widely varied. My sister and I were long ago engrained with the notion that there is an infinite amount of learning and knowledge to be gained. This was not a formal lesson taught around the family dinner table but an informal lesson lived out by example each day. While my mother does indeed practice the 7 1/2 habits mentioned, I think the catalyst for her learning in her innate and insatiable natural curiosity. I have been able to nurture and value my own curiosity having had the good fortune to watch my mother live as a successful lifelong learner following her own curiosity.

The most challenging of the 7 1/2 habits for me is viewing problems as challenges. Problems/challenges=same difference. In my mind, the word challenge has the same negative connotation that the word problem does. Instead of challenge, I'll have to save I will view problems as learning experiences. A rose by any other name.....yada, yada, yada.

The easiest will be using technology to my advantage. I genuinely like technology and am fairly well versed in most of it. Computers have not always been a part of my life, but I have spent enough time with them to have made up for the lost years.

Playing if the habit I think is the most important but most overlooked, at least by me. I think I work too much and place too much of an importance on it. I need to step back from my self-imposed obligations and let myself play more. Got to bend before you break.

Come on Web 2.0-23 Things. What do you have in store for me?