ABOUT ME
I'm Doug Belshaw, a 25 year-old History and ICT teacher in Doncaster, England. My blog's at http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk :-)
HOUSE
"Information does not travel on a straight road anymore" - moving in directions we could not have imagined a few years ago.
We need to understand how this information has changed - we have control over it works. New information landscape which many of our students understand - can create powerful new learning experiences with these
STARBUCKS
The murmur of Starbucks helps Dave write. Uses his mobile phone for checking things, but other than that needs to get away from home (email, distractions, etc.) - has access to world from little Starbucks coffee table.
We live in a time of rapid change - dynamic information landscape that students take for granted. They have no conscious recollection about the 20th century - only way they find out about it is in classrooms where they should be learning about THEIR future!
TRAIN STATION
Metaphor of railway tracks for conference - all attention in one direction. Go in various directions after keynote, but still one theme of conference. No rail to K12 Online Conference.
Schools are 'on the rail' as well - students all facing same direction as well. One way to graduation through 'standards'. Need for common context to be part of a culture, but students continue to learn about the world outside the classroom. They do this by 'leaving the rail behind'. They take 'sidetrips' - same with K12 Online Conference - independent of place and time (as with traditional conference/classroom)
It's about the conversation. Ways to aggregate the conversations and build knowledge - not even really a conference. Last 2 years have been most intense learning experiences of Dave's life - like one big conference and problem-solving journey.
21st-century learning = learning from each others' experiences and knowledge.
GREENWAY (PARK)
Navigating your own way without using the rail. Need central 'rail', but one single curriculum doesn't NEED to be central part of teaching and learning. The sidetrips should be the things we are focusing upon.
Best thing we can be teaching is to make students into independent learners. People who are specialised - who can make themselves experts - are the type of people who are going to prosper in the new Flat World (c.f. Friedman)
Dave remembers 1990 with first IRC channel - metaphor was with 'TV channels'. Spoke with Icelandic students - took 40 mins to realise that they weren't just down the road at the local university. Same with students nowadays - geography doesn't mean what it used to. Balance tipping towards talent rather than geography.
Learning today is work - not passive.
BACK IN HOUSE
Wikis a good way of collaborative note-taking - different perspectives. (http://landmark-project.com/k12online)
(Dave shows how to make own wiki page with notes from Keynote)
(Dave shows how to make your blog available to others - tagging and Technorati)
(Dave shows you how to use Hitchhikr)
(Dave reminisces about mainframe computers and the early days of using computers in education)