K-12 Online Conference

Click here to see the K-12 Online Conference session I attended.

The presenter, Clarence Fisher, is from a small town of 1000 people. He says that he doesn't feel isolated, though, because of the technology which connects him and his students to the rest of the world; he loves collaboration, even internationally. Classroom 2.0, he says, is necessary for redefining our concepts of education, which he believes is a "vital resource" to the U.S. and the rest of the world. And he believes that teachers should be proactive in helping students learn, using the tools available. It's not only about tools, though; he says it's about pedagogy, the methods we use to teach. Teachers, he says, shouldn't wait to be told how to do this; they should consider what is available to them and put it to use. Though curriculum, he says, is mandated, teachers can use it in a variety of ways. The relationship to the curriculum is more important than the curriculum itself, he says. This quote from the link sums it up nicely: "He is an advocate of classroom 2.0, learning spaces that take complete advantage of the tools that are available to learners in their quest to learn rather than having school be something that is done to them."

I learned that the information and tools available for today's classroom is vastly different than those available in the past. That means that teachers should adjust their teaching accordingly. Unfortunately, I think many teachers are stuck in their old ways of doing things. But why not take advantage of things which will promote learning? Learning is, after all, the goal of teaching. I liked the fact that he pointed out that, at the end of the day, it's not about tools. It's about how teachers use the tools to promote learning.