Hey Babe..Want to go to Scottsbluff, Nebraska?

Hey Babe..Want to go to Scottsbluff, Nebraska?

I was invited to do a feature presentation in the middle of Feb. for the Educational Service Center and the S.O.A.R. group. My wife said she would pass on this one but she really missed an exciting and energizing group.

I want to thank Penny Businga, LaRrits Van Boskirk, and Craig Hicks for a great conference. Thanks Craig for setting up a Moodle server making Blogs and Wiki’s available to the 300 plus in attendance and the Educational Service Center that serves 25 school districts. Many came away with a good understanding of the 21st Century Skills and how to incorporate the newfound skills into the various classroom areas.

As with most of the conferences, I provide Keynotes or feature presentation to, I am always amazed at the small number of educators that are aware of 21st Century Skills but are not incorporating them in their classrooms. There reasons are many, some things that they cannot control. Technology Directors that want to control everything and lock out all sites that have anything to do with Web 2.0 applications, social networking and social bookmarking. They block the very things that we are trying to use to incorporate 21st Century skills in our classrooms. I understand the issues of filters and e-rate funding and making a safe network. But, why not take a different approach and teach our kids about what to do when you encounter an inappropriate site, teaching Internet Safety and inappropriate Material, Cyberstalking, Cyberbullying, Meaningful Consequences, how to search the Internet effectively, how to check vital information and the content, learn to think critically, even suspiciously, compare and contrast, why filters can be a false sense of security, inappropriate content and behavior, and what to do about accidental access to Porn.

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….big fella, you are getting on your bandwagon….I will address this in another session…….back to the S.O.A.R.Conference.

At the S.O.A.R. conference, I provided sessions on 21st Century and Changing the Classroom, Visual Literacy and Web 2.0 Skills in the Classroom.

The absolute best part of traveling around the country and spreading the “21st Century Gospel are the e-mails and phone calls that I received after the conferences…..I have 2 of the responses below from Beth Still..What a champion…she jumped in with both feet and is making a change in her district and with her students.

“Howie,
This is Beth Still. I met you at the Civic Center earlier today. I just wanted to say thanks again for such a fantastic day. Your presentation was wonderful! I will continue to try to be the "one out of ten" who strives for change. I was so excited about the ePal program that I already posted a profile.

Each time you asked who was using podcasting, blogs, wikis, etc. there were only a few of us in the room who raised our hands. Please do not think this means that we are not interested in teaching 21st century skills to our students. I am so fortunate to teach in a school (an alternative high school) where we have 15 computers in a classroom with 12 students per class.But that is not the case for many of my colleagues..

I will continue to work closely with Craig to implement different tools into my classroom. I will keep in touch as my students begin to experiment. I will see you this summer in San Antonio at the ISTE conference.

Beth Still

This is the BEST !!!!!!!
Howie,
Thank you for keeping in touch. I have to share one thing that I have done this week. Out of all of the suggestions you shared last week I was most intrigued with the ePals program. I immediately registered and posted a profile. I literally got Goosebumps when I sent my first international email-----which was to Greece. Over the last few days I have heard back from schools in Japan, Germany, and Colombia. By the end of the week several of my students will probably receive their first correspondence from their pen pals. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited my students are about this project! Thank you for telling me about it.

I will share more projects as we go.
Beth Still

Keep up the GREAT work Beth…..

Next...On to Galveston Texas and TxDLA