Mast reflections by DonGato CC Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative works.

• Tying in with Michael Horn’s keynote, DisruptingClass: How Disruptive Innovation is Changing the Way the World Learns, web 2.0 tools and the young field of DL are part of the current disruptive innovation.  Horn says that to be successful, disruptive innovations must be allowed to be separate from the status quo and not judged by the current/old norms.  My take–Don’t force your DL program to be like the regular school program; let your DL teachers and admin experiment and innovate–they have the potential to help many of those kids whose needs are not currently being met in schools.
• DL schools don’t necessarily fit with the rest of the school system
• there is as shift to teaching mastery: a DL environment is the perfect place for this
• More educators are finding that tools like Elluminate Live! can be very powerful, especially with math instruction and tutoring.  (**A Province-wide license means that Elluminate Live! is free to use for all BC educators–go here to find out more)
• A surprising small number of DL educators are on Twitter, but perhaps more will be after Ellen Wagner’s keynote
• A surprising number of delegates have not yet dipped their toes in the web 2.0 waters
• There is a shift away from the tools to the pedagogy of teaching and learning in a DL environment
• No two DL schools are alike–some offer only synchronous programs, some offer asynchronous and continuous enrollment, some are 12 month operations, some are big, some are small, some offer special ed, some don’t…
• More people are willing to share their stuff; not just their ideas, but the things they have created.

My last point is BIG.  Two years ago when I went to the predecessor of the VSS conference, the BC Ed Online, the mood was one of competition.  We were all competing for the same pool of DL students.  Talk was of how to protect what we’ve created, not how to share.   I’m glad for the change in perspective.

My brain will be mulling over the VSS sessions and discussions for quite a while to come and this post was a chance for me to finally put down my thoughts.  The conference will inform the direction my school takes over the next little while, and that is pretty exciting.

The Last Words
My questions for you are, (1) have you noticed a shift towards sharing?  I mean, it’s so gosh darned easy now to share what you have created in the digital world, shouldn’t we all be sharing?  Doesn’t that give more value to what you’ve spent time creating?  (2) Are you starting to notice a shift away from the tools and towards best practices in this increasingly digital world?

As always, thanks for reading!

What Jodie and I wanted to present on were a bunch of cool Google applications that we stumbled upon this summer during our self-directed Pro-D. One of them, Google Docs, is a great little fairly basic on-line word processing tool. What makes it impressive is that multiple users can work on the same document at the same time and go back and view edits that have been made. It could be a very useful tool if you have students collaborating together on a project, or if you are collaborating with a peer (as Jodie and I have done).

We also discovered Google Calendar, which we have used with great success. You can do a whole lot of cool things with Google Calendar such as allowing others to subscribe to your calendar or you can post your calendar(s) to web pages. For example, check out the calendar on our grade 10 web page. We have been using the calendars to post deadlines and other important dates. Students and their parents have been finding the calendars quite useful. After these two great finds, I decided to check out More Google Products. From here I discovered Google Notebook, Blogger, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Reader, and much more.

So, basking in our Google Glow, Jodie and I thought we should definitely present on this at the VSS conference. But now I’m having second thoughts. Don’t get me wrong, I love these Google apps. I use Notebook everyday, I have almost committed to switching all of my personal e-mail over to Gmail, I rely on Google Calendar (for school and home), the first thing I look at when I log onto iGoogle is Google Reader, and I entered the blogosphere using Blogger. (Wow, I hadn’t realized how thoroughly entrenched I have become in using all things Google until just now!) So here’s the thing; they’re just tools. And there are other tools out there that do similar things. I don’t know if I should be giving a presentation on tools. Especially since that’s what it will be, a presentation. Not a hands on workshop. Just me and Jodie telling and showing. I have no doubt that people would come to a presentation on these particular tools, but how much of an impact will we make?

I’d still like to present at the VSS conference. And it is a Google tool that will be the inspiration (not quite the right term) for my presentation. What I’d like to present on is blogging. Not on how to get your students to blog–I haven’t done that yet. No, on blogging as being central to an educator’s professional development. I only really started blogging at the end of November, 2007. In the period of just over one month I’ve been exposed to so many fabulous ideas that have really impacted me as an educator. I’d like to expose the blogless to the thrills of conversing in the blogosphere.

What do you think; Blogging as a key part of an educator’s pro-d, or should I just stick with the tool talk?