Create your own mind maps at MindMeister
Here is the mindmeister that Tess and I were working on today…so far it is as it is when the clock chimed 1:00 and we were shuffled out of the room to our next adventures of the day. My next adventure led me right to the Education Library (woo hoo!) – but only after a 15 minute catnap in the grass outside. It was great to be able to share where my thoughts are headed for this class. Something I didn’t share was the second part to the question…what I am leaning towards in terms of a work in progress project. So, here it is in a nutshell so far:
1. To look at the balance between screen time and time in nature – what is the best way to encorporate both effectively
2. To look at the balance between online connections via social media etc, personal/face to face connections, and spiritual, emotional, etc connections with nature – the best way to do all of this effectively so that one is not getting left behind the others (because I feel all are important in their own ways)
3. And finally, looking at how to connect these different connections – phew! – essentially, how can we use technology and or social media to foster positive change in the environment, resulting in positive and impactful learning experiences for our students.
*Using technology to ENHANCE our learning and teaching rather than simply for the sake of using it.
What Jenny mentioned today about taking iPads out into nature – that was and idea I had that I included in my initial mindmeister (I used that for last Friday’s post). Taking picture of native species, finding out right then and there about those species, and posting findings to a class blog, twitter, instagram, etc. As Jenny reiterated today – this is covering so many concepts with just one project. Yay! I would love to look with more detail into ideas like this.
Again, I am rambling. Two final thoughts:
1. It was great to discuss my thoughts with a fellow student today – Thanks Tess for approaching me!
2. I was so so impressed by everyones’ ideas today – Jenny is right – what a smart bunch of students/teachers you all are!
I love working with teachers! Once we get over our unexamined ideas about using technology for learning, ideas that are circulated through casual conversations but rarely challenged, we open up the possibility of emancipating learning processes from the confines of 19th century learning activities. Yes, we need to deliver certain curriculum to our students (at all levels of education), but, more importantly, we need to contextualize learning to ensure necessary curriculum is conceive and shared in productive, meaningful ways. If our educational system has been based on ensuring benchmark acquisition of certain knowledge for every student, what would it mean if those benchmarks were the least of our concerns because our learning activities exceeded those benchmarks so as to make them irrelevant? The field of education is in a huge transition at present, with multiple forces bearing down on educational policy, and educational practice. The elements of education that have always been important: civility, social codes of conduct, learning to learn, developing language and literacy skills across disciplinary and communicative realms; these remain no matter what technological era we are in. However, the formation of our human relationships, our perception of our human beingness as part of ecological systems (not superior to them), the possibility of economies of just enough rather than continuous growth, these are issues that are new to human evolution and we must address them in our educational practice. Our involvements with technologies, including digital technologies are part of the experience.