Feeling connected
Today I started the morning, as usual, skimming my rss feed reader and visiting my usual websites. If nothing catches my eye it takes ten minutes. Today I was reading and responding for about two hours. There were many stimulating posts! It’s nice to start the morning feeling connected to the rest of the human race.
Here are a few examples of what I found this morning:
This article on ed4wb, which I’m going to have to read 3 or 4 more times to really feel like I get it. The graphics are fantastic — great visual depictions of learning heirarchies and how they’re changing. Just looking at the images got me thinking.
A posting on good.ni stating that teachers should stop teaching handwriting. I disagreed with the posting, but the core of the writer’s message was that her son was being trained to think his handwriting was terrible. I was fascinated for many other reasons — availability/reliability of new technologies, how & what we teach, how we communicate, etc.
A dense article on free lectures, digital citizenship, and learning.
A couple of emails from my sisters about Christmas. I was reminded of a poem my sister wrote about my dad which gave me warm fuzzies. We went on to chat about presents for five year-old Ian, my sister’s child, and browsing led me to a swarm of outstanding children’s books like this one.
A quick investigation into the value of teaching Newton’s idea of gravity when kids are young, then blowing their minds with Einstein’s general relativity. I realized that it’s possible that you won’t even get to general relativity, and unless you’re in a very specialized field, Newtonian gravity is all you ever need to understand. Some surprisingly awesome videos on YouTube.
A story about the BBC losing the masters to an old tv show, then recovering a copy from a viewer who taped it illegally. Will they relax their now-famous crusade against piracy, or will this event be shrugged off?
The most obvious and valuable user feedback EVER. Why isn’t everyone doing this and how can I apply it to my classroom?
A reminder that Kutztown U. often sends out crucial information only by email, expecting the students to use it. I want to be able to email my students, have them send me their finished products, ask me questions, and do it all right in the middle of class.
This article about thinking critically about how we do things, especially in institutions like schools.
A response to a Malcolm Gladwell article I read a couple of weeks ago comparing teaching to football scouting. I learned a great deal from the article and the response. I don’t know how I feel about it and I have doubts about both writers, but it’s stimulating.
My interaction with each varied — I responded to a couple, explored the topic from other sources for a few more, read and marked (and added a couple of rss feeds) for others. But it was one of those mornings when having an rss aggregator, a propeller account, a facebook account, a bunch of email addresses, some websites I regularly visit, a digg account, some time to explore, and the creativity and agile minds of my fellow human ripped my brain from its post-slumber torpor into full-fledged mania.
It was a good morning.
December 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I have the ed4wb post (Insulat-Ed) as well as one of Fluid Learning (http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=94) set to re-read. Check the second article if you have a chance.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Dave-
When do you do this? What do you use for RSS? Do you find yourself getting caught up in things? Soon minutes, then hours tick by?? I am using netvibes, and I really like it. It is sort of a one stop shopping. I also want to spend some time creating a Facebook account. How do you use Facebook? What does it give you that nothing else does?
I appreciate that you posted all these ideas. I really want to do more of this myself.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:06 am
a) I do this in the morning, when I get home, and before I go to bed.
b) Bloglines, primarily. I have a netvibes account that is prettier, but I like “texty” stuff.
c) yes, I get caught up in things all the time
d) With Facebook, I’m alerted any time a person I’ve “friended” does something — responds to a friend, loads up a new application, etc. So it’s like I’m standing in a room with my friends. I can watch what they’re doing, eavesdrop, and respond. Almost zero effort, lots of news. It has reduced my need to call my family from the expected “once a month” to “every six months.” And with that, we all win.