Finding Clarity

I just wanted to say that there is nothing that forces you to learn more that the need to explain something to someone else. The first thing you need to do is to identify the audience so that you can tailor your message to them specifically. This exercise forces me to put myself into my audience's shoes and see what I am doing through their eyes. As I review the information that I could present I am overwhelmed with the sheer amount of it and how quickly it seems to be shifting. So, now I need to look at each program, each app, each site and each blog with an eye to evaluating their pertinence, ease of use and importance to teachers and students. I hope that I can live up to expectations and deliver the definitive must-know presentation that I imagine in my head....

Bread Crumbs

When Hansel and Gretel went into the forest, they left a trail of breadcrumbs so that they could find their way back. That is what I intend to do, but not in order to find my way back. Rather, it is for other teachers and people interested in doing what I am doing to use as a way to follow my lead and to get where I am... until such time as they no longer needed my guidance. --In fact, this set of bread crumbs comes with the ability for them to question and comment on my journey into the deep dark forest of tech. While I don't pretend to know all the answers ( certainly not! ) I may, however, be in a position to point them in the right direction(s). I have recently signed up to give a (potential) presentation at this year's (2013) RASCALS in June to be entitled E-literacy in Education: How to Get There from Here that is meant to be a beginner's "How To" guide and introduction to technology for teachers who don't know where to start (but secretly want to) from the point of view of a self-taught digital immigrant (me) who needs to teach to up-and-coming digital natives (my students) in the way in which they have become accustomed to learning. In this presentation, I intend to leave the participants with addresses, links, examples and a blog that will allow them to begin the journey (well-armed)... when they are ready. As well, I intend to show them what I have done and how I have done it. I want to explain to them why they need to connect with tech and how to do it step by step. I will touch on programs and concepts like Facebook, Twitter, PLN's, MOOC's, crowd-sourcing,and others, in a general way and MOST IMPORTANTLY, leave participants with a list of links of useful applications and games they they can use. I will show them what I do with them in my classroom and ALSO where they can go for most answers -- in the event that they did not understand all the first time (because they are suffering from information overload and jargonitis. ---In other words, I would like the presentation at RASCALS to be the beginning of their journey and not the end of their involvement with ed-tech. There will be a question and answer session at the end of the presentation.