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.