- - Opening Address Live Blog
12:01 p.m.
Mr. Schmitt finished off his talk this morning with an amazing video. The words
engage, rigour and create are words that rang true during Mr. Schmitt's preparation for this session.
Leadership = Relationship = Presence - - Duignan
Video: "
Learning to Change, Changing to Learn" - An amazing "who's who" of technology visionists including
Greg Whitby from down under.
11:45 a.m.
New LiteraciesThe ability to
read, edit, and think critically. Our students will need to be literate in the ways of publishing. Everyone has a voice. Developing new communication and processing skills. Will Richardson talks about the New Literacies.
Alan Luke talks about this as well. Mr. Schmitt is referring to the Alan Luke video on the Ministry Webcast. I have the 6 minute clip of Alan Luke lower down on this blog.
Video: Here is the link to the
53 minute long Alan Luke webcast on New Literacies.
And here is the
podcast feed to the Alan Luke materials if you would like to subscribe with iTunes.
11:44 a.m.
The current slide comes from "
Commoncraft.com" a website that creates video explanations in "Plain English". The clip being shown is about
Blogs. This is wonderful! Commoncraft does a terrific job at explaining all the wonders of Web 2.0.
Current fact: Since 2003 there have been 7 million blogs created.
You can search blogs here:
http://blogsearch.google.com/The current Commoncraft
video being show is
Wikis in Plain English. By the way,
Wiki means "fast" in Hawaii.
11:32 a.m.
The current slide shows: "
The New Frontier of Collaboration/Interaction"
The discussion is about the "
Remixing" and "
Changing" of what we say. The remixing of society and the society of authorship. The ideas will be expanded upon and we all become
co-creators of knowledge.
Our role as teachers is changing. What do we do with the knowledge?
Three Key Ideas:
1. Relationships
2. Critical Literacy
3. Authorship of Knowledge
11:30 a.m.
The discussion has resumed and some amazing comments are coming forward:
- technology is expensive
- students don't have the critical literacy skills to filter on-line materials
- where is your comfort level?
- what does the product look like? -- timed test - - printed materials - - posters
- the product is not "there yet" - - do we hand things in digitally
11:15 to 11:25 - - Break
11:12 a.m.
Video:
A Vision of K-12 students Today - 16 Digital Natives - B. Nesbitt
The current video is now showing. The video is similar to the one that was made famous by Michael Welsh at Kansas State.
It shows a number of children holding up signs as to how they spend their time and the dissonance is that the signs list items about technology enhanced learning - - but the signs themselves are chalkboards and whiteboards - - not electronic!
Here is
Michael Welsh's original version.
11:02 a.m.
Mr. Schmitt is now reading from the current edition of MacLean's magazine. He is talking about the article "
Dumbed Down".
Some of the studies have looked into young people and how their brain image is starting to change. It is just another proof that we are "re-wiring" our brains.
10:58 a.m.
The current video clip is called, "
24 Hours in the Life of a Digital Native" and the slides are showing what a typical modern day teenager goes through in his/her typical life as a digital learner and participator. A
Marc Prensky quote just appeared. He is good.
Comments: Questions and Comments from the Audience about this video
The person in the video was physically all alone.
Real life relationships?
Gaming on-line.
Are relationships changing due to technology?
Comment that our Kindergarten children are arriving in our classes with fewer words.
Parents. Are they there?
Some of the technology can be used for good. How?
As educators we need to meet our students part way?
What leadership role can it all play?
We're now talking about how teenagers communicate.
Text messaging. Is it faster than across the room?
Person to person relationship building is an important point.
10:50 a.m.
The current slide now shows
Social Networking and Mr. Schmitt is talking about
interest,
engagement and
rigor. Does it mean that our roles as educators will change?
10:47 a.m.
Mr. Schmitt is now talking about how a "
whole generation of people" can be engaged in the technologies.
The current slide showing is "
Digital Learners" and how the newer generation is a multi-tasking group of individuals. They do things, engage and produce things that have never been seen before. The web was: "about eyeballs" and now is about "hands". The use of co-creating, Wikis, and implications for educators.
10:42 a.m.
Further comments to the "
Pay Attention" video revolve around how some of the words and vocabulary is new for people in the audience. "
Remix" was a word discussed as new to at least one audience member.
10:40 a.m.
The "
Pay Attention" video has now ended and people are responding to it. There were some chuckles as the video was playing but mostly silence. Mr. Schmitt is now taking questions and just had me up in front of the audience to explain how the live blogging is occuring as the presentation proceeds.
10:31 a.m.
Still re-booting the P.C.
Laura Kearse is viewing the Pay Attention video on her Blackberry from this live blog session that was shown during the presentation here. The P.C. is now up and running and the Pay Attention Video is now showing again. No problems viewing it this time.
10:21 a.m.
The windows update just invoked on the presenters laptop and has prevented the audience from viewing the video. The computer is now being re-booted. A teacher is making a connection to the classroom in that this stuff happens all the time. Another teacher just said that, " the students will be assisting and troubleshooting items like this".
Laughter.... as people wait.
10:16 a.m.
The video "Pay Attention" is now playing. You can view it
here. I remember the first time I showed this video to a staff in HPEDSB. It caused an emotional response I had not come across before.
10:13 a.m.
The first slide on the presentation says how the presenter's daughter [16 years old] does all here technology after 3pm! He is talking about how the current generation is learning differently. He is now going to show a series of short video clips
10:07 a.m.
Now talking about how
Barack Obama is the youngest baby boomer President at 47. Just think, Clinton is at the other end of the Baby Boomer scale having been born in 1947. Mr. Schmitt is now referring to
how technology is changing,
how social culture is changing and the way we behave.
He talked about how "Mo-blogging" Mobile Blogging created a stir in front of the White House on election night. Text messages were sent to people to converge at the White House to celebrate Obama's win.
10:06 a.m.
Mr. Schmitt is talking about how the "language" that young people use is changing. "Sick" means something different than what it did when he was a boy.
9:58 a.m. - November 13th, 2008
We're coming to you live from the EOSDN conference at the Four Points Sheraton hotel in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Right now Mr. Michael Schmitt, the Director of Education for the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, is being introduced.
Donald Tapscott and Nora Young had a terrific converstion today on Spark. If you haven't discovered the Spark Blog/Podcast yet, check it out here: http://cbc.ca/spark
