the media window

A reflection on Clarence Fisher’s keynote presentation at the K12Online07 conference.

After watching Clarence Fisher’s keynote presentation for K12Online07 a few times, then understanding what he has managed to achieve in a fairly remote part of the world I realize that it’s up to me to stop finding the reasons that I CAN’t accomplish the tech integration in the classroom and start finding ways to make them happen. I live in a metropolitan area! I’ve been talking about starting a blogging project with students, but have yet to accomplish it. So, with the good advice from other educational bloggers who have gone before me I will finally delve into student blogging this coming school year.
The part of Mr. Fisher’s presentation that I keep coming back to in my mind is the final part where he speaks of “changing ourselves”. The idea of a classroom as a studio is intriguing to me. I feel as if I am on the brink of making fundamental shifts in the media center that I teach in, my “classroom”. I teach literature appreciation, research skills, technology skills, and media skills in a variety of ways. As I watch Fisher’s presentation though, my methods seem archaic to me. I would like to present some options for students that better prepare them for their future in meaningful ways.
Here are some of the key points I heard in this presentation:

• Geography is irrelevant, knowledge is not.
• We need to prepare students for their future.
• Teachers need to change the way they teach.
• Use tools that allow collaboration, promote ideas, exchange of viewpoints, and make connections.
• Relationship is important.
• Information is vital.
• Curriculum needs to be constantly evaluated.
• Use a variety of tech tools that allow this collaboration.

Challenges for me:
The large number of students I see each day and the range of grade levels (K-5).
Limited access to computer lab especially during standardized testing times (9 weeks of the school year now)
Firewalls that block certain websites, such as Skype, Yackpack and more.

Accommodations that I can make:
Make use of computers in the media center, ibook laptops.
Have computers as stations in the media center during lessons.

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