Wut+I+Lurned


 * Evrything I lurned, I lurned at Lurning 2.0**

**Space for Reflection:** I am an educator and I need to be re-educated. When it comes to technology, I am a deep cynic. I am here to hear arguments to the contrary. I am here to be convinced. I know that I need an attitude adjustment. If you want to speak critically about technology in schools -- you'd better speak in hushed tones. Otherwise you are like the Democrat at a Republican convention: 'twould be wise not to criticize the candidates too loudly for fear of being strung up on the cross. And yet there are a few arguments I find persuasive.
 * Who says it saves me time (as well as my students')?
 * Who says it makes my life easier? You will oft see me before my computer with my head in my hands, whimpering, "How hard can it be?
 * Technology frustrates me. Especially when it takes me 45 minutes to print or project; half-an-hour to add a picture to a Moodle module. Hell, it took me a whole prep period just to print the lesson plans I was required to leave behind for me to be here.
 * I feel like this is time taken away from somewhere. From where? From planning lessons, from pedagogy, from collaborating with other English teachers.
 * I feel like technology is the reason I now write in bullet points rather than paragraphs.
 * I am deeply concerned that everyone (but me) has taken a big drink from the kool aid and gotten drunk off the allure of shiny new smart books and pads and gadgets and fads.
 * I am concerned that technology puts the cart before the horse; that we will endorse activities over skills, method over pedagogy. And I'll be honest, one of these conferences is the perfect place to hear lots of presentations about glamour over substance.
 * I am not convinced that with a 1:1 program students will learn more, better, or faster. I think it possibly increases their workload.
 * I feel like my objectives have been usurped. The ojbective, now, is to create an environment that promotes engagement and collaboration. I don't necessarily believe I need technology to do that.
 * Technology is just a tool. I think people have the tendency to use technology just for technology's sake. I once saw a video where students didn't need to use fingerpaints anymore because we now have software to do that without all the mess. I think kids need the mess.

**Ideas and Takeaways:**


 * Our students are already going down this road. They need somebody there to guide them.
 * Our students think they are good multi-taskers; they are not. They need somebody there to guide them.
 * My pedagogy is still my own. My class is still my own.I only need to adopt, incorporate, implement at the level to which it supports what I know to be best practice.
 * This is going to happen with or without me.
 * Technology will dictate the future of my profession, and so it gives pause for reflection: fighting it is futile, I will never win that battle. Getting frustrated by it is futile. I will become the school Eeyoure. I will bum everyone out.

There are two kinds of presentations at this conference. The ones labeled Cool Tools where you drool over the cool new gadgets and gimmicks and sites. And the ones that insert these new technologies within a context. I prefer the latter. A one-hour workshop on Paperless classrooms or Flipped Classrooms justifies the expense of the technology in the first place.


 * Dialogues:**

During discussion, a teacher in my cohort brought up an example of something he does during homeroom.


 * Contacts**
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