Our school division is the realm of delivering and developing assessments.These assessments include The AFL for Reading, Writing and Math at various grade levels and the CAT III. We have also gone so far as to develop a Grade 7 reading assessment which has been given and will continue to be given to Grade 7’s in our school division(which I was a part of by the way).

Schools have been given the results of these tests,  and then teachers are expected to, in their individual school PLT’S,  create common assessments for those areas needing improvement in the Math, Reading,and Writing. By starting to do this, students scores should improve when given these assessments again, and our school  divsions learning improvement plan goal should be reached by 2009.

Again, back to my question, if we followed the Science Leadership Academy’s Approach to Learning, would students do better on Standardized assessments?

Any other ideas from anyone?

Stephen Downes talks about a network approach to teaching. He says we can create our own personal learning environment. “Aggregate, remix, repurpose, and feed forward. “Personally, I find my personal learning environment is not where I’d like it to be. Being aware of the many technological tools out there, exploring these tools, all takes time and time has been a rare commodity for me these days.

But I do like the idea of creating your own work environment with your own content. 

As Clarence Fisher says, ‘Education is a vital, natural resource.”

I really enjoyed Dean Shareki’s presentation on “One Man’s Journey into Connected Learning.” His 5 big ideas:Getting personal and selfish; PLC on Steroids; Consider your commpost rating and Share everything are points I will take into account as I continue one woman’s journey into connected learning.

There were a few comments mentioned during that presentation that really got me thinking about my own school and school division.Having teachers who get it, supportive admnistration, policies and time are crucial’ if we want students to take advantage of all these technological tools.

Don’t we want what’s best for our students?

 With the different presentations and how technology creates social networks for people of all ages,it has given me a whole different perspective on the use of technology, if used appropriately.Such as, Sharon mentions the successes with technology and how the social network has provided exciting global experiences for her students.

Therefore, my question is, how do I go about changing the views of technology in my school division? Again, I feel as educators it is our role to make our students aware of the technology and  teach them how to use the technology appropriately.

As Sharon used in her presentation,  a quote by Paulo Freire,”Understand the word, understand the world.”

George Siemens did have some interesting points, it is true, we often link to people who have similar values and interests. It’s safe! The “echo chamber ” effect does keep us from accepting or understanding differing opinions from our own.

Another point he mentions is, schools are being challenged by the openness and the democratic access of information.Therefore we as educators must continue to teach our students the appropriateness of technology, we need to help students prepare for the type of world they will inherit, and encourage them to experiment with these tools.

 George mentions a few points that sums up my feelings with technology.Information has really exploded; there is a sense of fatigue; too much coming our way and not having the ability to make sense of it all. We need to find a way to  make sense of this education abundance.

Blog..blog..blog…blog…

I found Rick’s presentation on “The History Of Technology”quite interesting.It is amazing how things have evolved over the years with technology and how it will continue to evolve. Once we get comfortable with one form of technology, they invent another! Are we going to keep up with the changes?

I was also impressed with the people who  could be considered leaders in technology.I t shows us that people look at technology in different ways.

With the session on Wed., I found out my school division has blocked out the website,Skype.In fact,there have been other sites with this class that have been blocked as well. Interesting? In regards to the UStream chat it was new for me that others were allowed to chat even though they weren’t in this class. Again, technology is evolving too quickly for me? How am I to keep up? But,I’m not a quitter!

I appreciated the comment Darren made  in regards to  one way if you want to become a better teacher is to become better in your content area. Passion, that is the word that comes to my mind. The students and staff at Darren’s school are very fortunate to have him on board.

I guess that’s why I’m taking this class, I have expectations for my staff and students to challenge themselves and become better with technology and I should have those expectations of myself.

I did feel a bit overwhelmed when the Wednesday night class posed some technical difficulties for me, but felt better when others were having those same difficulties.

I will continue to persevere!