"I'LL MAKE THEM AN OFFER, THEY CAN'T REFUSE!"

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~Alvin Toffler

As I struggled (and I do mean struggled) with this week's topic...WHAT'S NEXT?...I found the above quote quite poignant. It really gets at the heart of the matter when we are talking about the role educators play in this digital revolution with today's children.

Educators need to "unlearn" old teaching habits of being the expert in the classroom and imparting their wisdom. They need to "relearn" teaching strategies that allow them to "learn" along side their students. Being literate in the 21st century means accepting that their are new ways of learning that are developing at a faster rate than we can profess to keep up with them and therefore as educators we must become more facilitators and learners WITH our students. In order to keep ourselves in the game, we must be willing to give up some of our more traditional methods of engaging our students and dive into these amazing new tools for information literacy that are available on the world wide web.

OK...that was Heather's Philosophy of Education in the 21st century 101...if you read that and gleamed a speck of comprehension....then you passed!

So...what IS next if we as educators are going to strive to stay cutting edge in the improvement of our children's education, specifically in regards to integrating technology in their learning? What tool do I think would make the biggest impact on the staff and students in my school?

With all the reading, reflecting and discussions over the past couple of weeks regarding blogs, I am more convinced than ever that BLOGS are the place to begin! A huge undertaking...perhaps... BUT worthwhile!

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/88949661@N00/302510560)

I decided to share my thoughts in a personal debate using the "tried and true" method of comparing the PROS and CONS. So here goes...

PROS

• I believe there is a reason Will Richardson's first chapters in his book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web tools for Classrooms" begins by looking at blogs. As Richardson states, "...what I find so powerful about Weblogs today...writing to the web is easy. And there is an audience for my ideas...Weblogs have such huge potential in an educational setting." (p.17)Almost all other Web 2.0 tools seem to need somewhere to showcase themselves and the blog provides the perfect portal for linking up podcasts, videos, photos, voicethreads, etc. I guess I see the blog as the template or forum from which all the other tools can be shared in one easily created space!


• As Will stated, it's easy! Many teachers are already using some form of Word processing. Blogs simply provide a more technologically integrated, environmentally friendly, wider audience and...let's face it, a more fun means of sharing what you could type and print onto a piece of paper!


• As we have learned throughout this course, blogs have SO MANY uses for both teachers and their students. Anne Davis wrote a post for her blog Edublog Insights where she shares her Rationale for Educational Blogging. She provides a list of amazing reasons for blogging with students that I will refer to often when the argument of blogging with students is ever raised amongst parents or peers. Two of my favorite points were:
  "Blogging provides the opportunity for our students to learn to write for life-long learning.
  Blogging affords us the opportunity to teach responsible public writing. Students can learn about the power of the published word and the responsibilities involved with public writing."


• These two previous points bring me back to my list of "pros" for blogging. As students and teachers begin using blogs, they will hopefully begin to see the potential for their blogging beyond just what is required for a course or teacher, but as a means of communicating with the world outside the classroom walls on their own time and for years to come. As long as they have an audience (the internet), there is always someone listening to their ideas and may be ready to respond and strike up a conversation. As Anne Davis states, "(It's) that outside connecting audience that makes a difference. It is exciting. It is motivating." It's what has kept her blogging with her students since 2002!


• Blogging also allows for the opportunity for teachers to begin discussing and investigating the issues of internet safety. It becomes more real to students when THEY are the writers and publishers of the content that is presented on the web. Another priceless site I found about blogging in education, (specifically tips for internet safety) was at Teaching tips.com entitled 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers. You have to check this one out!


• For our school and staff, I believe that blogs will open our classroom doors to our parent community. With assessment trends involving parents more and more and on a much more frequent basis, I believe that blogs will help to bridge that communication gap between teacher, student and parent and get parents more involved in their child's education. I found an interesting blog post at Inspiring Teachers entitled Blogging and Parents that shares many ideas for what a blog could contain to help parents in supporting and teaching their children at home. I get rave reviews about how much parents appreciate my classroom blog as they often feel disconnected as working parents from what is going on in their child's day-to-day learning.


• Once teachers have established what a blog is and how easy it is to create their own. I feel it would be important to introduce them to the many examples of blogs, both for professional learning and as examples for their own classroom, so they could see the potential and usefulness that a blog can offer. I couldn't introduce blogging to a group of teachers without Supportblogging.com as it is contains a wealth of resources for edubloggers alike!

CONS

Will Richardson to the rescue again, in an archived post entitled The Future of Blogs , Richardson clearly outlines many of the concerns surrounding the employment of blogs in schools. It was interesting how he started out reminding everyone of his passion for blogging in education and that this post was presented to begin an important discussion about “what are the obstacles and how do we overcome them to keep blogs evolving and branching out in education!"

• TIME - There is no doubt that blogs require time to learn about, set up and to maintain, something many teachers already don't feel they have enough of with what is already on their plates. This is where teachers need to let something else go in order to introduce something new. As well, school divisions need to be offering up opportunities through in-servicing to promote these new tools. Richardson puts it simply,"without a fundamental shift in how we perceive and fund education, this will remain an intractable roadblock for all but the most highly engaged and motivated."


• ACCESS- This is a huge "con" in our school when it comes to anything involving the use of the computers over an extended period of time. "When can I get into the computer lab? It's always booked! We don't have enough computers!" I'm sure you've all heard it and in truth it's a fair concern but there are ways to modify what you do to make blogging work for you (or any IT project). The concept of center based learning so only a few computers are needed at one time is one such solution. Another block for some school divisions is access to a good blogging host site (fortunately for me that is not an issue.).


• FEAR - I may get ridiculed for this but I think teachers fear change more than any other profession, mostly because of what change implies...but that's a totally different post! I liked Will's statement, "to take a leap into the unknown with blogs is scary at best and nightmarish at worst. Especially if the tools demand not just an understanding of technology but a redefinition of good pedagogy." Again, back to Toffler's quote, we need to learn, unlearn and relearn to become literate in this 21st century and in order to do that we need to make changes and face our fears. Will refers to Barbara Ganley (a teacher and notable edublogger) who addresses the fears teachers have regarding Web 2.0. In researching more about her, I stumbled across a somewhat eerie video she created entitled "Teacher Fear/Fear 2.0". Is this what we fear?


• SAFETY - Richardson devotes a few pages in his book to "Blog Safety" (p.49) with many suggestions for teachers to keep their students safe (using pseudonyms or first names only, never divulging personal information, creating an Acceptable Use Policy that students and parents have to sign when using blogs, removing the "navbar" so students can't access other blogs that may be inappropriate, etc.) Blogs are an open arena for students to publish their thoughts freely and of course this will have its implications if teachers are not moderating comments and checking on their students' blogs regularly through RSS feeds.
  

So how would I take on this challenge of teaching this tool to my fellow teachers and peers?

Within Manitoba, the province has created a continuum entitled "Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum" which was first developed in 2004. The implementation of this new "curriculum" has been the main focus and school plan goal in most divisions since its introduction. This in itself creates the perfect avenue when introducing new technology ideas to our staff as it has become mandatory for staff to report on how they are developing "Literacy with ICT" in their classrooms and with their students.

I joined our ICT committee for the first time this year at our school, in hopes to infuse what I have learned in this course into our school learning environment and to help facilitate the implementation of the Literacy with ICT continuum. I also participated in a two day workshop with the creators of the document in order to become a school leader in the process of educating our staff on Literacy with ICT. I am hoping with these new experiences my staff feels comfortable with my knowledge in the field and are ready to pursue the idea of blogging as part of the implementation plan.

The website for the Literacy with ICT in Manitoba is an excellent resource for school leaders as there is a whole section dedicated to providing the support and information needed for those taking on that role. This is not a responsibility that I take lightly nor do I necessarily feel like an "expert" in the field. On the website I found this statement (that is some serious food for thought) as we take the journey into teaching our peers,

"Effective leaders understand how to balance growth through change while, at the same time practising aspects of culture, values, and norms worth preserving. They know which policies, practices, resources, and incentives to align, and how to align them with organizational practices. They know how to gauge the magnitude of the change they are calling for and how to adjust their leadership strategies accordingly."

WOW! That is a lot to consider! Fortunately, I am quite proud of the work Manitoba has done in creating, promoting and beginning to implement this document. I only hope to get my staff as excited and enthusiastic about blogging and the integration of ICT in their pedagogy!

Hopefully we can start a generation of life-long learners (and bloggers)!

Since I started with a quote, I saw it as only fitting to end with one...

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett