BioBlog

As we scramble to implement the latest changes in technology, adding weblogs, resource pages, and aggregators to our repertoire, George Siemens quotes Jean Baudrillard on his distinctions between “change” and “becoming.”  (http://www.conncectivism.ca/blog/2007/09/on_distinctions_between_change.html) Siemens says that while we have “a vague sense of what we don’t want to be,” we are “grasping for clarity on what we are becoming.”  He says that “as educators, our emphasis needs to be on increasing learners’ ability to function in unknowing environments.  A lesson we first need to learn ourselves.”  Siemens further writes that the first role of education is to react to trends and use the tools we think learners need and will use.  The second role, as he sees it, is that of moving educated people toward a desire to change society for the better.  Siemens’s concern (in response to my comment on his blog) is that unless we teach the value of diversity, social networkers risk surrounding themselves with like-minded people rather than “understanding others who hold dramatically different worldviews from our own.”

In light of George Siemens’s comments, do you see technology, especially the Read/Write Web, as an opportunity to help students “become” more democratic and sensitive toward individual freedom or not?   Is it the responsibility of the educator to ensure that students are not networking only with people who think like themselves?  I look forward to your thoughts.

One of my responses can be found on Pam’s blog at http://www.riskyeducationalwonders.blogspot.com/

My comment on BJ’s Blogical Discussion can be found at:

http://techinclassroom.blogspot.com/2007/10/4a2-blogical-discussion-forum.html

Our Classrooms for the Future team currently consists of five people from five different disciplines who are trying to coordinate an action plan to implement the initiative.  Our time togeher is limited, and we rarely see each other outside of formal meetings.  The use of social bookmarking through del.icio.us will enable us to divide and conquer as we each explore a different avenue of inquiry and then share our findings through a common tag.  Doing so will enable us to keep up with recent findings, saving an enormous amount of time wandering through the web and repeating each other’s work.  As our group expands to include an additional eight colleagues in the spring and another thirty next school year, the social networks can be subdivided into teaching disciplines as well so that science teachers can share information pertinent to science, social studies to social studies, etc.  For anyone who teaches in a physically large complex where face-to-face interactions are infrequent, social networking appears to be a logical way to immediately share best practices, innovations, and information.

You can access my BioBlog Pageflake at http://www.pageflakes.com/deb.steinmiller/15412947

Through the RSS feeds that I have found so far, I hope to keep myself up to date on what is happening in both biology and education.  It seems as if the feeds will save me a lot of time searching for interesting events that are happening around me in an attempt to keep my students more aware of the real life connection between the classroom and the world.  This tool certainly updates the concept of “current events.”  Using information from these feeds in a blog will allow students to share thoughts with people from other areas of the country and/or different cultures.  Such experiences should be enriching because they have the potential to take students out of a comfort zone to realize that not everyone thinks or believes the same thing.

Miss Baker’s Biology Blog is a treasure.  She has developed a blog that incorporates news, projects, extra-credit, and student posts.  The site links to her website making for one-stop shopping for her students.  My website is read-only, and even though it offers a message board, the ability to download my presentations, games, and links, it does not allow students to comment.  I am looking forward to giving them the opportunity to share their ideas and to post assignments like the ones she offers.

Link on to her News section to see how many of her students respond to items that they find interesting.  http://missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/category/news/

To view her extra credit page, link here.  http://missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/category/extra-credit/

 Student responses can be viewed at http://missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog/2007/01/14/5-point-extra-credit-opportunity/#comments

Even if you are not a biology teacher, this is a design that I think high school students would find fun to use.

I’m so excited to greet you and to let you know that in this space, I expect great changes to take place.  My dream of combining a library with a lab for my biology students is happening right here.  With the opportunity to use the Read/Write Web, I envision my students becoming part of a global community where they realize that they are not learning in one room in one school in one town.  Instead, they have extensive access to experts and to their peers.  They can collaborate and share explorations with others in different climates and different cultures, expanding their view of the importance of what they learn and do.  I hope to enliven their interest, desire, and literacy as they do real science and communicate it with others.  I believe that they will view their education in a new light as they have the capability to publish their work and share it with others.