Jamie Britto's Page

I just got Directlife. I'm so excited to try it out. Thanks for telling me about it! BTW - what is your Twitter ID?

Thank you! I am a researcher at the University of Maine and want to identify a forum appropriate for science teachers to build an "instructional social network" to further their students' inquiry learning, and connect these teachers to other science teachers around the world.

The British Independent Schools Association wishes to develop its Ning network to the same degree as your ISEnet. At the moment, teaching staff can't quite see the merits of engagement as they are always busy enough. What tips can you give to this brit administrator to speed up the flywheel? A major Independent schools conference last week at Radley college pleaded with schools to go for innovation in the use of ICT rather than just focussing on automation. Schools are filling up with staff to populate the database (that's easy to do) rather than building a wealth of innovation.

I had a related flash the other day, thinking about how many eager admins and tech folks have decided to rev up their faculties by showing a Michael Wesch video ("The Machine is Us/ing Us" seems to be the favorite). Realized that teachers can have three possible responses to this: 1) Baloney! 2) I suck, because I don't quite get this and I'll never be able to learn how it works. 3) This is cool; let me on the bus.

So the challenge is to introduce and get started on the work that a Michael Wesch video implies in a way that minimizes the first two reactions and maximizes the third. Think, "Here is some work we all have to do so we can continue being the best _____ School we can be" is perhaps less disruptive and frightening than "We're gonna go 21st-century with everything we do!"

See also http://www.admirablefaculties.org/2008/09/new-digital-divide.html for earlier thoughts on this.

But anyhow, good luck to you all!

That's kind of cool. I'd be interested to know how folks respond; I've come to the conclusion that fiery rhetoric does not increase faculty buy-in when change is in the offing. Doesn't mean don't do it, but keep talking the language of the school, not the gurus. (Had a thought that perhaps schools ought to think hard before using any word that starts with "re" to describe what they're doing--except perhaps "refresh.)

Cheers--PG

Thanks for the welcome. Long-time member, first-time unlurker.

I'm actually looking for some discussion of tech integration and curriculum. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the welcome, I am looking forward to learning from my colleagues.

Thanks for the welcome--I'm actually rejoining for about the 3rd time! I keep being prompted to rejoin. Am I doing something wrong? I'd like to stick with my first profile if possible--I had some discussions there!
Ben

Thanks for the welcome Jamie