I've been on this educational technology adventure for years now and I've realized that there are some pretty amazing schools and districts out there, not to mention amazing educators. It seems to me, some schools and districts are moving forward much more quickly than others. Some are quick to adapt to new technologies and some are much slower. Are leadership and funding the critical factors in determining the direction schools and districts take with how fast they move with technology? Are there others?


Is your school/district one who has a "Let's go for it and see what happens" mentality? I think it would be very fun to be working in an environment where new ideas were given the green light. I realize we're teaching in a world of No Child Left Behind where schools are judged by test scores, where funding levels aren't where we'd like them to be, where professional development may not always be up to us, but why aren't teachers given the opportunity to try something new? Why can't we experiment a little?


Or, is your school or district taking a very cautious approach? If they are, why? Is the time we have with students too valuable to "waste" on something that isn't research based? Are we risking valuable book time with students on topics directly related to "the test?" Is there simply fear with what could go wrong? How will this mentality change in a school or district? Can it happen quickly or do you think it must happen slowly? I'm not sure I have the answers.



Photo Credits: http://flickr.com/photos/alexajaye/2256556628 and http://flickr.com/photos/iirraa/93216696/

I'm getting overwhelmed. I'm finding so many outstanding blogs that I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start. There are tons of teaching blogs out there and tons of Ed. Tech blogs that I'm really starting to enjoy. However, I'm finding out this world is much bigger than I imagined. My bookmarks on del.icio.us are growing by the minute. The list is still very small compared to what's out there, but I guess I better start small - there's only 24 hours in the day.

I have to start narrowing down my interests. There's so much I want to learn more about - RSS feeds, Google Reader, Twitter, Ning, and others. I haven't even touched wikis yet. I'm using Bloglines - and I find it very useful. I'm in the very early learning stages of Twitter, recently signing up. I have no idea, at this point, how it works. If you have an idea, let me know. Look me up or something - if that's possible. I'm pretty sure my user name is imcguy. Should I learn more about this before moving on to something else?

Should I focus more on my blogging and less on other Web 2.0 tools? Should I focus more on reading the good stuff that's out there commenting on it rather than worry about how many people will comment on my blog? I'm upset when I don't get any comments - should I even care? Should I continue learning more about del.icio.us and how to share my bookmarks? What tool should my students start using? What would they benefit from first? So many questions.

This learning environment is huge. There is no way I could get this information from the teachers in my building, my department, or even my district. This is truly incredible. Now, how can it benefit the kids? How can I get classroom teachers to see the value of this? How can this increase test scores - or can it? While we need to prepare students for a future that most likely doesn't exist yet, how can we teach these skills when there is so much focus on getting our students to be proficient learners. These tech skills will help them as they get older, but I'm not sure how they will get kids to pass the test now!

After spending too many hours over the previous few days reading familiar blogs and discovering new ones, I've come to the conclusion that I think I have a problem. Now, I'm not admitting it yet, and that's usually the first step to getting help, but I think I'm headed down the wrong path.

I started a blog a month or so ago just to give it a try and learn more about Web 2.0 technology. Being the technology "guru" in my building and the man in charge of using technology with the students, I figured I better know how to use it. Man, was that a mistake, in a good way. My blog started as a way of just writing about some of my thoughts, mostly useless information for whoever or nobody to read. I have a couple of people who I think read my stuff on a regular basis, and perhaps it will grow into something more. To me, that would be a double edged sword. While becoming more "known" in the educational blog world would be extremely cool and flattering, I wonder if the result would also mean more time spent blogging. At this point, I'm not sure if I have the time, but I think I might give it a go and see what happens. I guess I better start writing entertaining/thoughtful/valuable stuff.

I started out reading mainly with education-related blogs, which I have found very entertaining, relaxing, and thought provoking (congrats to the "Thinking Blog" winners out there). While there are thousands of blogs (many of which I'm sure are great) that I haven't discovered yet, I have found a few that I enjoy and will continue to visit on a regular basis. Over the past few days, I've discovered several more and have added them to my list of fairly regular reads. Today, I've discovered a whole to world of blogs that is going to be both very valuable and of course, time consuming.....library blogs. Being a librarian, I suppose I should keep up with the books part of my job. I'm sure the sites I've discovered today will lead me to more good blogs, which again, will be good and bad.

Here's the question for the serious bloggers out there - How do you find the time to keep up on your reading and blogging? Do you have more than 24 hours in your day? Do you not do anything else to do? Are you kidless outside of the school day? I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to balance the blog world with the rest of the real world!

Wow, I've actually started a blog. I hope people read this, enjoy it, and perhaps comment. I really plan on talking about a bunch of education related things, but I may talk about my family or other stuff in my life just to change the pace. Right now, this is going to be a short one because I should be sleeping because I'm tired and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Well, for me it's going to be a long day. For some other people, it might actually be short. I have to leave for school around 7:00 and won't get home until about 6:00 because of a meeting after school. Maybe I'll find time to talk about my day in the library of the elementary school I work in, maybe not. Either way it might be something I try and do.