Bill Gates, Roller Coasters, and Where R U?
(Delight) “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”- Bill Gates
All of us, in the world of educational technology, are leaders as we empower our peers, administrators, teachers, and students. With that leadership comes HUGE responsibility. Where am I with that responsibility? I am where 21st Century meets blank faces and blank stares.
I’ve been planning Trantwood 2.0 for about 5 months now. I must persuade and “sell” our entire school’s new approach to technology utilization. Our program structure will not be the same as it has been in years past. We will now focus on creative thinking/problem solving, connecting/sharing with others in and outside our school, communicating, and collaborating. This change will bring all of us out of our computer lab comfort zone. No more excuses. I’ve worked so hard this past year to explore and utiize web2.0 apps like never before- I’ve twittered, vokied, wikied, ninged, blogged, podcasted, video conferenced, voicethreaded, google sketch upped, igoogled, google earthed, tagged, rss’d, Aliced, Scratched, webinarred, youtubed, ustreamed, edtechtalked, and much more (pls excuse the creative spelling). What’s amazing about this is not the length of the list, but that i just started using this stuff LESS than a year ago! I committed to learning and using new Web2.0 apps and now i’m feeling more than ready to share my excitement! I tried them out on my computer club kids, small groups of students, and with several teacher power users and their classes. It’s time now to go whole school, no more old school. In general, changes on this scale are exciting and thrilling, but scary…kinda like the Griffon rollercoaster at Busch Gardens that i’m proud to say i rode on this week. We will experience sudden twists and turns, as well as an occasional steep drop (perahps off of our new wireless network). I’ll be taking the next few weeks to work on my presentation of “Trantwood 2.0″ for our staff professional development at the end of August. I have about 1.5 hours to motivate, convince, encourage, and beg our faculty and staff to join me on this wild ride.
(Delight) “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”- Bill Gates
(Discovery) Here is a great map a twitter friend posted today- http://www.appappeal.com/web-2-0-application-world-mosaic/ containing 1001 web2.0 apps. Just when i thought i had web2.0 down, they shared 900 more! (Both a pro and a con with web2.0!)
In my previous post, i asked “Who’s on What?”. My question for this one is “Where are you?”
(Discovery) My friend, JaneneG recently sent me this link to a quiz that reveals where you are technologically- http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/quiz.asp
Here is a link to my results- http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/results.asp?c=0 Pretty cool!!!
(Discovery)Also, decide where you are on this 21st Century teaching and learning continuum and think about what steps are needed to get to the next level.
I’m guessing i’m about 3.5 
Technology Delights, Discoveries, and Disasters w/SheilaT
~ Sheila Teri
