Four Essential Questions That Need Answers

Like many, I am intrigued by the promise and potential that integrating Web 2.0 tools provides for learners, both students and teachers. I know that in many instances, that I leading the charge full bore down that path because I believe that it is imperative that we provide experiences for our students to begin to construct their learning environments using these new collaborative tools. But as we delve further and further down the path, there are three questions that need to be answered before completely committing to these tools. 1. Who owns the data I will admit that I do […]

Group Membership and Validation

I have been reading the commentary from others about the ideas which have arisen from the conversation that Steve Hargadon’s conversation with Will Richardson about blogging. Of particular interest to me are the comments from an old friend, Andy Carvin on his learningnow.org about avoiding the usual pool of thoughts and Jeff Utecht’s posting which led me back to Bud the Teacher and David Jake’s comments on some of the complaints that it is difficult to reach a critical mass of readership in the thoughts that we choose to share. While walking the dog this afternoon, in between catching the […]

Winding Down for the Holidays – Not

With seven school days left before Winter Break, I am usually wrapping up the new initiatives that we began planning in March and April, implementing in May, June, July, and August, and then training and utilizing in the fall. This year, however, there are five projects that we will require my time and attention over the winter break that I am really excited about and looking forward to develop. 1. Reflection: What Does Vietnam Mean This is a project beginning in December and running until January 23rd. I will be working with our US History teacher, students, and librarian. I […]

My Online Conference Experiences

The past three weeks have provided wonderful professional development opportunities for me and at the same time have created a tension which these new opportunites create. During this time, I have been trying to keep with the content and conversations provided by both the K12 Online Conference and the New York City Independent School Technologists conference in Mohonk. Because both of these conferences have made their presentations available via a variety of different modes, podcasts, vidcasts, and screencasts. Via the variety of blogs and aggregators, such as hitchhikr, I have been able to gather the notes and follow the conversation […]

Different Person, Similar Story

At the North Shore Country Day School, each year we have the opportunity to hear many wonderful speakers who expand us and challenge us. Last year, we had the opportunity to have Joe Fab on campus, the producer of Paper Clips. This film was edited by one of our alumni, Julia Dixon Eddy. This year, our speaker was Mike Leonard (http://mikeleonard.pictureshowfilms.com/), whose son, Brendan graduated in 2002. Brendan had a summer series on ABC Family in the summer of 2002. Mike is a news correspondent for the Today Show, and as he shared, he is the only correspondent that they […]