Technology Poems

Check this out! Over at Dangerously Irrelevant, Scott McLeod, created a technology poem contest. He just announced the winners and there are great poems! I'm sending you to the original posting so you can look at all the entries. Go down to the comments section and you'll see them. I think my favorite one is the one with the Beatles, "Let It Be". I also liked "Digging Out of the Digital World". Good stuff! I hear a lesson in here somewhere...

How Can We Create Change

Last week, I was at the World Color Guard Championships, which is a whole other part of my life. While there I was trying to find free time to finished up grad school stuff and continue to write reflections for my portfolio (due in two weeks-yikes!). Other than that, I didn't really see how two of the facets of my life; educational technology and color guard relate. However, as I sat watching Marian Catholic High School from Illinois, I realized I was wrong. Their show was all about change and we can be a part of it-changing the way people think, how they treat others, how the treat the environment, changing how we relate to cancer, and more. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but it made me realize how I've changed in this program and how technology has changed me.

I believe that learning about technology and educational reform has made me a better teacher, colleague, learner, and person. Although I sometimes feel overwhelmed by it all and have to stop and catch my breath and "power down", I have found more ways to learn about new things, stay involved, and keep in touch through technology. As I student I didn't have the advantages students today have. I would have loved to show off my talents and my thoughts by using video or a podcast. Even a blog-as I'm doing now. I was pretty creative growing up, but I really think this would doubled my creative energy. However, I do see where I probably would have had a problem with doing everything online, and neglecting everything else. That's why it's important to show students that while technology is great, they also need to go enjoy the sunshine and personal time with a human being outside of instant messenger.

Technology has changed us in other ways too. Just look at television, the writer's strike came out because of the increase in demand of shows and specials being available online. At TVguide.com, actors and actresses, writers, and directors are keeping blogs and answering questions and talking to fans like never before. I also keep up with my favorite shows by listening to podcasts created by fans, who interview the staff and stars. That couldn't be done ten years ago; that wouldn't have been done ten years ago.

And now in color guard, something very near and dear to my heart, the evolution has begun. Instead of using tapes and tape players to record judges' comments, the local circuit here and many others, have started using digital voice recorders. Tape and tape players are so hard to come by now and this process is so much easier. When the comments have been recorded, the comments can be burned onto a CD, copied to a flash drive, or added to your ipod. The way music is used in color guard is also changing, we've been using CD's for some time now, but will the next move be to hook up your ipod or mp3 player? Will there be a need for CD's soon? A very interesting thought.

More Learning

I was reading David Warlick's blog today, 2Cents Worth, and he was talking about PLN's or personal learning networks. This made me think about our leadership module from class and how we are working to create our own professional development and leadership plans. He made some great comments about knowing when too much technology is too much and when you need to take a break and enjoy the sunshine! That was certainly true today as I sat outside on my porch after work and caught up on the additions to my Google Reader.

In keeping with Mr. Warlick's suggestion, I think I found a great website to add my "network". In tomorrow's Website Wednesday, I feature an Instructional Technology Department from Wichita Public Schools. I found all kinds of great resources here and it's amazing to see how much they are doing. I especially like their newsletter section, called Tech Focus, where they explain in video (!) some of the projects schools within their district are doing. I watched a video on podcasting tonight and I was very impressed. It also seems appropriate since we are creating podcasts in class this week. Look under January's features.

I also recently extended my "network" when I learned more about wikis from some colleagues. We came up with a way to share our SOL resources for all middle school teachers in the county to see and use. It's called MSSOL and online SOL resources are divided into each curriculum category.