As I anxiously awaited the clock to stop ticking and the keynote to begin I thought back to my introduction to 2.0 a mere 12 months ago. I was privelleged enough to have Darren present his enthusiastic OLE workshop and was hooked. As a math teacher seeing kids do arithmatic instead of Mathematics was driving me nuts. Following the rails of the class curriculum without mathematizing and communicating was the norm in my building. Now after a year of blogging and now attmepting to wiki, the students see an audience for their work in the comments left behind on their blog. Fellow students from my other classes and former students are starting to write and help the current students grow as authors of their blog posts.
A year ago students would have balked at writing in math more readily than they do today. Most enjoy the technology and the freedom to complete assignments any time during the day (outside of school). Math writing is crutial to conceptual understanding. They now write frequently.
Thank you David for pushing the envelope. Thank you to the facilitators of this conference for creating cutting edge learning experiences for us to participate in.
If we continue to blog and wiki
this conference will never end
. It is just the starting point of the journey.
I enjoyed the first steps along this path. I am looking forward to new paths to walk on!
Chris Harbeck Sargent Park School Winnipeg Manitoba