This week I did my 10 Minutes of Fame (using Padlet to explain Twitter and Tweetdeck) and really enjoyed preparing it, although once again it revealed to me that I thought I knew much more than I actually do. As I was exploring my own Tweetdeck, I kept discovering functionalities I didn’t know about, even though I’ve been using it for about a year!
On July 2, I labelled myself a 7 or 8 on the technology scale, but I’m surprised to find (unlike others in this class), the more I’m in the course, the less I feel I know! I do appreciate it’s all relative – compared to some teachers at my school I’m an ICT genius. Others in the class seem to experiencing much growth and revelations, whereas I seem to be having much confusion and information overload! But, as previously posted, I am embracing the chaos! Chocolate helps.
I so related to Sophie’s comment about her private school experience with new ICT tools and technologies. She said her school is very end product orientated with little to no training provided. With my school, it’s the same. They seem to jump on various bandwagons: SmartBoards! Tablets! iPads! from a PR and attracting ‘customers’ standpoint. But then they don’t have a vision to guide the implementation of these technologies and don’t provide concrete PD. Not only that, the focus really seems to be on the Senior School (grades 7 through 12) which is also geographically separated from the Junior School. The JS gets the SS cast offs, has to beg for help and has no on-site IT help. Hmm.
I loved Brianne’s Summative presentation where she used memes to track her learning journey so far. It was great because I’m highly visual and because it was FUNNY! She said, “The information keeps piling on, even as the end seems far too near.” I agree completely. This weekend I had the urge to shut down my twitter. I’m tired of opening links to yet more great tools, blogs, ideas, and I don’t even follow that many people. I’m on the ISTE FaceBook and EDUTOPIA FB pages and it’s just non-stop information overload. Yes ,there are some fantastic tips and ideas, but I am tired of thinking about it all and trying to problem solve through it and apply it to my classroom. My urge to CULL continues, or to find a way to cut down on the constant barrage of information.
OK, rant over!
Ted Talk Sugata Mitra: now that was a wonderful clip.
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There is only so much information we can handle and then we need to turn it off and do something else. Yes, there are endless lists of resources and possibilities. The challenge is discerning what is useful and important (at a given moment and time) and what is not. I loved the Padlet, Tweetdeck, Twitter demonstration! I have needed a way to organize mulitple Twitter accounts. Thanks for that.