Colette Cassinelli’s edtech VISION

All of the great folks over at EdubloggerWorld are gearing up for the first virtual meet-up on August 23rd. Participants are invited to check out the wiki to learn how to participate throughout the day (depending on your timezone). There are even events scheduled for Second Life at SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/232/148/29 .

Here is what was posted on the wiki: Wherever you are, whatever you are doing with blogging in education and as an educator here is what we invite you to do to be part of this event:

1. Contribute your own blog post on this day and tag it EBWwindow2007. In this post share your experiences with blogging. Where do you blog? How often do you blog? What do you blog about? Why is blogging so important to you?
2. Do you have a photo you can share of your own blogging area (looking out of a window, your room, your classroom)? We want to collect images of EduBloggers around the world and where they blog and/or what they are looking at when they blog. Put this in your blog post, put it on Flickr.com , and post it to the Ning.
3. Participate in a synchronous event on August 23 and meet other EduBloggers online.
4. Sign up to be a Global Greeter: We are inviting members from all locations to step forward and be a Global Greeter. See the Global Greeter wiki page for more details about this. How many countries can we add on August 23?

I am planning on participating on the 23rd. Will you consider joining me?

Tonight our OMET Pepperdine cadre hosted a “Give Education a Second Life” event at the NMC Campus on Teaching2 in Second Life. The event began with a keynote address by Melissa Anderson. Then a video that discusses the theme of choice was shown. Next, we listened to an interview between edtech blogger, Steve Hargadon and Gary Stager. The “Give Education a Second Life” website URL was shared as well as the contest requirements to win an iPod. The two evenings ended with lively discussion among participants.

My favorite quote of the evening was by Gary Stager: “I would suggest that without choice there is no ownership; without ownership there is no engagement; and without engagement there is no learning.” To me this quote speaks directly to what I have been trying to accomplish in my computer classes all year – engage students to increase learning. Another thing Stager mentioned was that we need to give kids more varied, deeper, richer, and more personally meaningful long-term sustained experiences. It is through these experiences that students construct knowledge – not through access to information or “interaction with the content”.

Both evenings challenged me to articulate my vision of choice and why I believe it is essential to create a learner-centered environment. Thanks to all who attended.