Techlearning blog

Do the planets have to be aligned just right? Does the technology user have to be in the right frame of mind, have the necessary support, or find new ways to communicate? One thing that the Web 2.0 tools have given all of us is a new way to communicate. The evidence is seen when teachers get together on their own time to attend a summer workshop. The instructors are heavily invested in the technology tools, the instructors remind the teachers to find their purpose for using the new tools, the instructors tell them to pick one or two new tools, use the ones that work, get rid of the ones that don't. The instructors hope that one tool will unlock the door, will open an avenue for conversation, will allow one teacher at a time to find another technology user who is engaged and interested in the same thing.

The two summer workshops I co-taught in were incredible and I must say Rockin! One workshop was completely online, where Susan Ettenheim, from NYC, worked with me as we co-facilitated a large group of webcasting interns at www.webcastacademy.net for a 5 week class. You can see the bulk of the work they accomplished at www.webcastacademy.net and listen to their audio shows and read their reflections. Did I mention there were people in the class from the UK, the US, Austrailia, Canada, South America? We even had two interns graduate this weekend. One intern, Jose Rodriguez, made this reflection which I absolutely loved: Thanks Jose for these thoughts put into words!

I think I first heard the term; "Open Source Learning" in chat in the Webcast Academy. I thought I knew what it was. I figured it referred to us choose what content we wanted to learn on the Internet. I heard Will Richardson http://www.weblogg-ed.com/ refer to ideas on the Read-Write Web and the like. I also keep up with other superbloggers like Wesley Fryer, Miguel Ghulin, David Warlick, Christopher Sessums, Steven Downes just to name a few. I even participated in K12Online last year and Web Heads in Action Online Conference this year along with NECC2007 not to mention everything happening at edtechtalk. Nevertheless understanding comes through the practice or application and not theory. Not until Webcast Academy did I begin to understand Open Source Learning. It just all clicked today. I got a call from Kevin Sandridge a teacher in central Florida, we had a long talk about web 2.0 and implications for Second Language Learners, Yesterday, Susan Ettenheim was asking about classes to recruit for youthbridges. I had a conversation with Chris Craft about a project on digital storytelling on Friday. And Today it just came all together. Dennis was uploading his file to Webcast Academy. It didn't show up in the flash player. I thought I would help out. How hard could it be? 80 minutes later with Susan patiently waiting on the sidelines we defeated the Audacity gremlins and successfully uploaded the file . I felt great and was happy to be able to contribute. Open Source Learning means building on collective knowledge. NOW, I've GOT IT!

I just love all these comments, it all came together for Jose, and the rest of the class. This class lived on SKYPE chat where they all registered and followed the chat from their classmates. Can you think of a way to use chat in your classroom? Through my participation in this online class I have learned as much as I have been responsible for teaching, no way, I learned more than I taught!

The other co-facilitating I participated in was a summer workshop with 12 participants, face to face! This group totally Rocked! My co-facilitator, Bob Sprankle and I taught the course and again we learned as much as we taught. Our favorite teaching tool had to be VoiceThread.com , and each participant found a way to use it in their classroom. The foreign language teachers used it for vocabulary, other teachers used it for their family threads and still others participated and added to the course reflections. Hm, how could this be used in the classroom?

This year in my district we are kicking off a district wide Moodle. I say we because the only way this will happen is because we will all work together. We may be moving slowly, there will be speedbumps, corrections and progress. I know the progress will be incremental I will celebrate all the little steps we take. All the little steps get us closer to our district and community sharing in the celebration of learning. Our students will be at the center of all this, their work will be available to their peers, their teachers, their parents and the world. This is open source learning, where we all build on our collective knowledge. I know I continue to learn a lot.

What are your open source learning moments? Each new teacher will share with another new teacher, and so it continues.