Multi-Genre Autobiography

In order to get to school 2.0 however, a technology infrastructure needs to be in place. We can not change our pedagogy and adapt these new taxonomies and new theories if we do not have the tools to do so. I believe that is the phase we are now moving out of. For the past 10 years we have been creating school 1.5. As we built the infrastructure needed to move to a new way of teaching and learning.

Chris’s SLA school, Tim’s Elementary and Dr. Tyson’s Middle School are three great examples of schools that are headed towards School 2.0. Moving towards School 2.0 starts with leadership as all three of these examples prove.

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Let these scribe posts stand as examples for what future scribes should aspire to achieve.

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

Abraham Lincoln

(16th US President (1861-65), who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. 1809-1865)

Consecutive Hall Of Fame Scribe Post Record Holder

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For educators, the potential significance of RSS is huge. Think about how
teachers and districts could use this syndication process to communicate with
students, parents, newspapers, etc. In the classroom, teachers who have students
create their own Weblogs can easily keep tabs on what those students are posting
by subscribing to their students' feeds and simply checking their aggregators
regularly. If school Web sites were built on a foundation of Weblogs, as with
Lewis Elementary, parents could "subscribe" to different feeds that are relevant
to their children ... say, the feeds from the College Search page, the Board
of Education page, and Mr. Richardson's homework page.

Similarly, if internal committees used Weblogs to post minutes and links,
administrators could do a quick read in their aggregators to keep abreast of
what the groups are up to with the added benefit that the work is easily archived
for retrieval at a later date. Or, if you teach, say, a media class and want
to stay abreast of the latest developments with the Federal Trade Commission,
you can even subscribe to a Google or Yahoo! search for that term so that any
news on that topic is delivered right to you.

More and more Web sites are creating RSS feeds for their content. Many major
newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The
Miami Herald, and others, now offer RSS feeds of major sections in their
papers. Magazines are following suit. And sites such Feedster and Amazon.com
allow for the creation of RSS feeds for searches. So, for instance, if you
are a librarian and you want to be notified when new young adult books are
released, just add the Amazon.com-young adult books feed to your aggregator
and sit back and wait for the notices to start arriving. Or, if you are a classroom
teacher who wants to stay current on the newest tools in educational technology,
just create that search at Feedster, subscribe to the results, and any time
anyone in Weblog land writes about that topic you'll automatically know about
it.

I attended a marvelous session/debate titled Transforming Learning: Evolution or Revolution that was framed by the following question:

Should change evolve incrementally over time or is a more radical approach required to transform learning and teaching in an increasingly e-world?

Background:
In 2003 the SFEFC/SHEFC elearning Group Final Report stressed an emphasis on learning rather than technology and invested £6M to support “transformation” activities aimed at achieving significant changes in culture and practice in participating colleges and universities. Six transformational projects involving consortia of Scottish post-16 institutions were funded for two yearsto work towards the following principles of transformation:

• the process of change will mean that certain aspects of learning and teaching are conducted in a new way;
• the process of change is consistent with, and embedded in, institutional strategies, and is not a peripheral process driven solely by the possibility of external funding;
• the intended outcome is sustainable, and is expected to result in long-term change in activities beyond the period of external funding; and
• the process will yield measurable benefits to the institution and its learners.

The six e-learning transformational projects are developing models for change across a range of areas including pedagogy, staff development, e-assessment, PDP and e-portfolios, learning activities and content. Most projects are engaging with several of these areas. More information can be found here.

Chaired by an Scottish Funding Council representative each side, represented by two of the projects, will discuss how the different approaches impact on the following:

• Models and incentives - bottom up, top down, cascade, collaborative approaches
• Buy-in - institutional, departmental, individual
• Investment - economic aspects
• Evaluation - measuring transformation
• Timescales

The fact that this debate exists suggests that colleges and universities are not doing their part to stay abreast with the changes in society, teaching, learning, and information technologies. And this is why the notion of revolution seems somewhat appealing on a number of levels. How long do we have to weight for universities to catch up? And once they do catch up, will social needs and ICTs have changed yet again thus requiring learning institutions to continuously evolve and transform?

I watched a college go through a massive change when, over a period of about five years, 6000 students and teachers went online with laptops in the classroom. The institution was very good about support and there were strong internal teacher-leaders. It was a kind of revolution.

My observations are that there were some true-believers (me among them), many earnest  but unsure and trying teachers, many, many bowing to the (temporary, they were sure) political winds, and a substantial set of total cynics. I had friends in most of the camps.

Humans beings are messy. Many resist change, no matter what. Many embrace change, but don't actually understand what it is that's happening.

The problem with institutions is they are by nature small-c conservative; that's an important  aspect of their value. They keep knowledge alive that way. But we are going through the biggest change in communications in human history, at an incrediably rapid rate, and it's been clear for at least 5 years that this isn't going to go away. It's getting more and more powerful and ubiquitous. Yet many academics are still railing against the web and refusing to use it. I'd blame their age, but I'm one of the older Baby Boomers, and it's not age.

I think it's refusing to give up the power of being the expert in the classroom and institution. They've lost the joy and excitment of fresh discovery, true learning. I'd almost feel sorry for them, if they weren't so irritating. I don't understand why institutions of higher learning aren't actually fascinated by learning!