Students Thinking about Sustainability

My students have been thinking about the sustainability of our planet, and our ways of living on it.  I’ve had my English Language Arts students [grade ten students] working through a unit that I’ve called The Necessary Revolution.   The title is not very original, as I’ve lifted if from a great book by Peter Senge, but it works.  Students

Chris Jordan

began the unit with an introduction to Chris Jordan  and his work and message.   They watched short videos, viewed much of his artwork digitally, and read from his blog.  They were asked to respond to Chris’ message in writing by posting their thoughts and opinions as comments on my blog.  They also began to study a list of essential vocabulary; words like unsustainable, sustainability, necessary, revolution, citizenship, etc.  Next, the students viewed the documentary The 11th Hour.  While viewing, student took notes of important facts, information, and viewpoints, and we stopped the film constantly having good discussions.  After viewing, my students were expected to write a written response to the film.  Follow the link bellow to read their responses (please leave us some feedback).  

Another activity I’ve had on the go, is a small-scale tree planting project.  I’ve had students in three homerooms in the school planting white spruce tree seedlings.  We’ve planted them in small pots to keep in the room for the winter, to care for them, and then eventually move them to a more permanent home in the spring.  My students have been measuring, and watering their trees.   They’ve even tagged and named their trees. 

All of this is just a start, yet I feel that we are heading in the right direction.  

Follow the links below to read my students responses, and please, leave us some feedback. 

Student responses to Chris Jordan, his work and his message. 

Student responses to the film The 11th Hour.

Trees . . . I’ve Got Trees!

In much of my reading and viewing of information about the Necessary Revolution, I’ve been affected by the power of trees.  In Suzuki Speaks, David Suzuki talks quite inspiringly about the importance of trees on our planet, as do many important scientists in the film The 11^th Hour.  At some point, through discussions with co-workers (namely Dylan Johns) I came up with the idea of getting trees for the students at our school. 

I have two tree planting projects in mind, one smaller, and one quite large (from my perspective).  I would like to plant trees indoor (inside our classroom) as soon as possible with my homeroom and with a couple of other teacher’s homeroom classrooms in the school as well.  The idea here is to have students take care of the tree seedlings for the rest of the school year, and at the end of the year, they will take them home to plant in their yard. 

The larger project that I have in mind is to provide one tree seedling to each of our students in the school – we have about 500 students and about 50 staff members at Martin Collegiate.  I would think that this would work best in the spring time – likely March or April.  Each student will take home a seedling to plant in their yard, or to plant in a place that they can be attached to.

Originally, I had attempted to get trees from our provincial crown power corporation.  That was a process that just didn’t feel quite right.  This corporation uses the waste heat produced by one of its power plants aid in growing over 500,000 seedlings each year which are given away for various reasons and projects.   After finding the proper contact person, I was directed to some extensive paper-work.  Unfortunately, the application is somewhat of a lottery, through which I will have to wait until April to find out whether or not I will receive any of the requested tree seedlings.  I completed the application, but as I have stated, that just did not feel quite right. 

Shortly after, I found the Love Trees web-site of Andrea Koehle Jones.  Andrea is Executive Director of Love Trees as well as the ChariTree Foundation.  What a godsend!  She responded promptly, agreed that she thought my projects were great, and said that she was happy to provide trees for both of my projects as well as shipping (so there will be no cost to me or our school).  After receiving such an exceptional response from Andrea, I did a little searching, and found out that she is also the author of the children’s environmental picture book The Wish Trees.  I bought the book as a gift for my girls (along with Suzuki’s Tree: A Life Story for me).

“If children are going to make a lifelong commitment to protect the environment for themselves and future generations, they first need time to explore the wonders of nature,” said Andrea Koehle Jones, Executive Director of Love Trees.  She says one of the best ways to learn about the environment is to plant, care for and watch a seedling grow into a magnificent tree.

 I couldn’t agree with her more.  I know first hand how this has helped me.  Planting a tree from a seedling has made that tree special to me, and I still have the tree that I planted as a child.  This is exactly what I hope to see take place with this project. 

Andrea has notified me that Love Trees is a member of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign.  The trees that we are planting will help the UN reach this very substantial goal.  I feel pretty good about that.

Gaia At Night . . . Mother is Sick

Earthrise is the name given to this photograph of the Earth taken by astronaut William Anders in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission.  In Life’s 100 Photographs that Changed the World, it was called “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”  Photos of the Earth from space are so striking because they show how beautiful the planet is when viewed from a distance.  Such photos of Earth allow us to view our planet as one singular system, which we are a part of.  They remind us that we only have one Earth to work with, and that we depend on it for our survival.  Against the inky blackness of space, our home appears small and fragile, a living miracle of air, water, soil, and vegetation. 

Such a worldview is particularly important in light of our growing human disconnect from nature.  As our smaller worlds have become more industrial and our lives have become more dependant on technology, we’ve begun to lose our essential connection to the natural world of which were are a part.  Most of the human beings on this planet live in cities and a great number of us spend most of our time wrapped in technology and manufactured goods.  Although it is of course true that humans are animals, we do not often like to be reminded of it.  Indeed most of us know that we are mammals, however, we think it an insult to be called an animal, be it a pig, a dog, monkey, what have-you.  Calling someone an animal is deemed as a derogatory statement.

Of course there are some extremely significant factors that set us apart form the rest of the animal kingdom.  We are afterall, or so we hope to think, the most developed communicators on the planet.  And of course we cannot overlook our mastery of tool making and technology.  However, although these factors do make us stand out from the other organisms that we share our home with, they do not separate us from nature.  We must not forget that we are nature.  This is why it is so important to spend time outdoors, in nature, and with wildlife.  This time allows us to reconnect with who we actually are.

The first photos of the Earth from space are very powerful because they remind us that our planet is alive – she is Gaia, Mother Earth, she is life – and because of her, we have life.  More recently a variety of photos [composites or collages moreso than actual photographs] have become very popular on line.  These are the views of the Earth at night.  These assembled photos also provide us with very powerful perspectives of our home.  They allow us to visualize mankind’s extreme impact on the Earth.  From these composite images, we can clearly see densly populated areas of the Earth lit brightly.  We can clearly see the industrialized parts of the planet.  That is to say that we can see were the natural Earth has been converted into cities.  We can see where the natural Earth has been converted to man-made structures of concrete, wood, and steel.  That is to say that we can clearly see where non-renewable fossil fuels are being converted and used as electricity.  We can see where we live, and the impact we have made to our planet. 

When I first looked at images of the Earth at night, I remember being struck by their power.  They are immediatley grasping in their ability to communicate visually.  If we go by the old rule that every picture is worth a thousand words, then these collage of images certainly have something interesting to say.  As I have spent more time looking at these images, I am struck by the notion that the Earth looks sick.  The lights are symptoms of the spreading illness.  Man-kind’s current ways of thinking are destroying our planet. 

Now, this all seems very depressing, in a doom and gloom sort of manner.  There is however a positive spin that can be taken from these visuals.  That of course would be to understand the size and scope of impact that we have had in transforming our planet in such a small amount of time.  This is important only because there is still hope.  There is still time to reverse our effects.  Man-kind is not necessarily the cause of Earth’s sickness, but rather man-kind’s current ways of thinking.  We need to change the ways in which we think, consume, and pollute.  If we get the ball rolling towards new ways of thinking, we can have massive impact in very little time.  Our objective is to work towards a sustainable, healthy relationship with our home, Gaia, Mother Earth.

Plastic and the Albatross

I have spent a couple of hours over the last week or two reading and viewing Chris Jordan’s video blog about his “Midway Journey.”  At www.midwayjourney.com, Chris shares photos and video clips as he journals his experience walking amid the decimation of young Albatross birds on the Midway Atoll.  As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, Chris has some truly exceptional insight into the current state of waste on our planet.  I’m going to come right out say that this guy is a true visionary, a rare genius of visual communication.  Given that I am a teacher of visual arts, that statement is not to be taken lightly.  Chris has an ability to allow us to see realities about our world that we simply cannot (or chose not to) see.  Chris’ works encourages us to break down the barriers that exist in an age in which we are bombarded with statistics and factual information.  Chris has an exceptional ability to use a visual media to inspire change. 

The Midway Atoll is an oasis of sand, coral (and now plastic waste) in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the nearest continent.  Chris’ new photographic work documents the decimation of thousands of baby Albatross birds that occurs each year on the Midway Atoll.  Chris explains that, “The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.”

Some may find the visuals that Chris has captured to be disturbing or disgusting.  Regardless, the images speak clearly – and very loudly – about the impact of our ways of life and mass consumption and waste.  Statistics and facts attempt to communicate that our human mass consumption is causing significant changes to our planet.  There is a plethora of information outlining that our ways of living are responsible for the destruction and extinction of exceeding species of life.  However, statistics and facts lack emotion and immediate connection to our reality.  This is where Chris’ work truly comes to life.  Chris’ images do what statistics and facts often cannot.  They make us feel our impact.  These images make these realities actually matter to us.  The message is extremely clear.

Hope in Corporate Partnerships?

A few years ago, after watching the documentary, The Corporation, I remember feeling that I no longer had any faith in democracy.   The Corporation, which is the most successful Canadian documentary of all time, is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.  The film and book explore the history and rise of corporate power in the western world –  from small businesses to the giant global powerhouses that we have today.   Throughout the film, the message is clear; corporations in North America have become enormous, and enormously powerful.  Corporations are patholical in their pursuit of profits, and corporations are doing serious and irreperable damage to our planet.  Perhaps the most disturbing outcome of the film is the knowledge that a large number of globe-spanning corporate giants have clearly become more powerful than our systems of government.  Corporate greed and power has grown so strong, that it has managed to manipulate constitutional laws in order to protect the interests and profits of these great giants.  This leads to serious questions of coruption of government and faith in democracy; concerns of whether democracy is serving the people or serving the interest of greedy corperate power houses.

A newer book by Peter Senge (and others), however, sheds a more positive outlook on corporate power.  His 2008 book, The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World  portrays countless examples of a new kind of organizational partnership.   Giant corporations around the globe are partnering with NGOs (non-government organizations) and not for profit organizations in order to counter or eliminate the harm that they are doing to the planet.  At first, many of these partnerships are very shocking; as an example Coca-Cola is partnering with WWF (the World Wild-life Fund – not the wrestling federation).  Many large corporations have made such partnerships and serious commitments to work towards a sustainable future.  Nike, Google, Costco, Ikea, DuPont, BP, and countless others are forming partnerships with environmental and social justice organizations to ensure better stewardship of the earth and better livelihoods in the developing world.  Now, stop imagining – that world is already emerging.  These partnerships have already begun, and they are beginning to make headway in making substantial difference.  Amoung the most shocking of these partnerships may be the recently announced partnership between Walmart and the Suzuki Foundation.

It seems more logical for the world’s largest beverage manufacturer and bottler to team up with a wrestling federation than with the World Wild-life fund.  Selling beverages at wrestling events would generate revenue, but what does Coca-Cola have to gain from a partnership with the World Wild-life Fund?  Sustainability.  The hope for a sustainable future is what Coke has to gain.  The fact is that Coca-Cola is one of the world leaders in polluting our planet.  It has an enourmous carbon footprint, with manufacturing plants all over the planet.  More importantly, it is an emormous consumer of fresh water, one of our most precious resources.  By partnering with WWF, Coke is doing more than simply making a financial contribution, they are demonstrating a shift in corporate thinking.  This shift is an awakening to the realities that corporations have to face; the reality that current practices are unsustainable.  Coke, as one of the greatest consumers of fresh water on this planet, simply cannot sustain its current production.  This partnership is a realization that the company needs to change how it operates, and that it can benefit from the knowledge of leading NGOs like WWF. 

Wal-mart, Coca-cola, Costco, Ikea, Home-Depot, McDonalds, etc… these powerhouses aren’t going away any time soon.  There seems to be an acknowledgment by many of the leading non-profit organizations in the world of this fact, and a realization in essence that, “If you can’t beat them, then join them.”   Will the partnership between Coke and WWF result in sustainable water use, and health to watertables the world over?  Will a partnership between Wal-mart and the Suzuki Foundation result in sustainable transportation of goods around the planet?  This is a rather new development in the corporate world, and it is very early to see any significant outcomes.  However, there is hope in these partnerships, as they are steps in directions towards living sustainably.  HOPE.

Your thoughts are important.  It’s time to SPEAK UP.  What do you think?

On my rock, thinking… VISIONING.

A few months ago I had changed the banner that sits at the top of the introduction page to my web space (which this is a part of).  I have been thinking deeply about change and really found meaning in the following quote.  It is a famous inspirational quote of Mohandas ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi that has been translated into English.  The quote reads, “Be the change that you want to see in this world.”  Simple, yet profound.  In many ways this has been the mantra through which I have been viewing this course, and much of my own teaching this semester.  In many ways, this quote sums up my visioning.  I want to inspire change.  I want to awaken students to the understanding that change is inevitable, that change is necessary, that the needs are immediate, and that change is already happening.  I want my students to understand that they have the ability to create change; to be change.  I want this for myself, for my family, my children, and for my students.

As I try to envision the larger picture; the ideal situation towards which I strive, I see myself living as a positive example.  I see myself working hard towards living a lifestyle that contributes to the sustainability of human existence on our planet.  I dream one day of owning a house that is not only ‘off the grid’ in terms of demanding gas and electricity to be supplied, but one that generates a surplus of electricity to give or sell back to the community.  I dream of living in a community of like-minded people who are thinking, acting and living sustainably.  I dream of looking back on my teaching career and realizing that I was able to make a difference; that I was able to awaken teenagers to the realities and to the truths of our world; that I was able to communicate a message of hope; and that I was able to inspire young people to create change.  I hope that I can inspire children to create significant change; real change that has an impact on our culture and the mindset of many people; change that leads us to living sustainably as a culture.  I hope to be able to lead as an example.  I hope to be able to live as the best possible example, especially for my own children.  I want my own children to live healthy, happy, creative lives through which they have a positive footprint on the earth.

I want to educate children about sustainability and sustainable energy sources.  I want to educate children about carbon emissions and about positive global footprints.  I want to share the messages of so many important thinkers.  I want children to understand what David Suzuki, Chris Jordan, Al Gore, Peter Senge, and so many others are talking about.  I want children to be literate of the truths and the real issues of their time.  And I want to be careful not to overwhelm them.  There are so many problems and issues facing this, and future generations.  There are so many examples of how we are not living in sustainable ways on this planet.  The information, the facts, and the images can be completely overloading, overwhelming, and quite depressing.  I want to be careful at balancing informing with inspiring.  There is a serious risk of overwhelming individuals with truth, sometimes creating a feeling of hopelessness.  I want to provide positive examples of change that is already happening.  I want to communicate a message of hope. 

In a nutshell, this is my vision statement.  I want to be the change that I want to see in this world.  I want to awaken and inspire others to do the same.  The change that I want to see is to live sustainably in ways in which we are not taking more from the earth than it can supply, and in ways that do not take away from future generations.

Chris Jordan – Picturing Excess

Chris Jordan is one of the most amazing visual artists working today.  If you haven’t been introduced to his photographic artwork, now is the time to become acquainted.  Check out his web-site at ChrisJordan.com.  His works are enormous, aesthetically beautiful, mind-boggling, and thought-provoking.  I was introduced to Chris’ works through a video of his presentation on TED Talks.  This may be a great starting point for anyone who is not yet familiar with what Chris is doing. 

Chris Jordan

Chris puts statistics into a visual format so that we can truly understand.  Facts and statistics are often provided to inform or to educate.  However, statistics and facts are overwhelming and often completely impossible to comprehend.  A problem arises when facts contain very large numbers.  What does 1 billion actually mean?  When statistics contain gigantic numbers, they lose their meaning because it is just too difficult to comprehend how big they really are.  Chris’ work attempts to break down the barriers between the language of statistics and facts that bombard us in an age of information overload, and to allow us to find meaning. 

Chris understands that seeing is believing, and he creates a visual portrait of our world today that allows us to see and understand just how wasteful we are.  Chris has created two series of works titled Running the Numbers.  The first series is An American Self-Portrait.  His second is A Portrait of Global Mass Culture.  The works in these series show us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like.  His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day.

Running the Numbers

Chris creates these enormous images in order to help us feel more as a society; in order for issues to really matter to us.  He aims to break through the anesthetizing effect that most statistics have.  His main goal is to help us to wake up from our slumbering state of mass consumption, to face the facts, and to find ways to create change.  His artworks make us confront the real issues of our time, and they make us question how we are going to create change.  Perhaps this is why I love Chris’ work so much.  I feel where Chris is coming from.   Often I feel the need to scream WAKE UP.  I feel that too many of us need to wake up and take our heads out of the sand.  It is time for us to stop pretending that there is nothing wrong with our culture of global mass consumption.  It is time for us to stop many things.  It is time for us to wake up, and to demand change, create change, and to be the change that we want to see in this world.

Understanding the Visioning Process

   At first, I was caught completely off guard by the expectation of creating a visioning statement.  For whatever reason, I couldn’t wrap my head around the concept.  From the little that I knew about a visioning statement, I thought it was a term used mostly in the corporate world of companies and businesses.  When I first mentioned the visioning assignment to my wife, she was also confused, and questioned why we would be doing something so corporate in an education curriculum class.  I vaguely remember the term from a course in organizational behavior, and I initially had to agree with her that it seemed rather odd in this setting at first.

   After digging a little deeper, it began to make a lot of sense.  It only took a small amount of searching and reading for me to realize that the goals and ideas that I have been thinking about, were in fact a part of my vision statement.  From what I understand now, a vision statement is simply a description of what you are aiming for, working towards – a description of ideal goals or dreams.  As I searched, I found that (as suspected) many of the definitions of a vision statement do in fact come from a corporate world of organizational behavior.  However, I found a couple of definitions that were key in allowing me to understand that visioning has much broader applications than simply being used by business leaders. 

   The first definition that was important in aiding my understanding of the process was that “A vision statement is a vivid idealized description of a desired outcome that inspires, energizes and helps you create a mental picture of your target” (Constandse, 2008).  Visioning is a process that applies to anyone who sets goals or who seeks to achieve something. As such, visioning is certainly transferable to paths in education.  The second piece of information that cleared the fog for me was that, “most successful people have written vision statements.”  Reading this allowed me to understand that visioning is a process that ultimately applies to any person or organization with goals of being successful.  Visions statements are linked with the achievement of success, as they allow people to picture their goals clearly and concisely.  Visioning allows individuals to keep their goals in sight and sharply in focus.

   I also have come to understand the visioning is about thinking ‘big picture’, or about thinking about ideal outcomes.  Visioning is about clearly stating the ‘what’ that is desired, not necessarily even thinking about the ‘how’. 

   In hind-sight, it seems somewhat funny that I was confused about something that now seems so logical.   After the first day of this class, I changed the banner at the top of the introduction page to my web space to read the following quote that has been translated from the words of Mohandas Gandhi.  The quote reads, “Be the change that you want to see in this world.”  Simple, yet profound. 

   In many ways this has been the mantra through which I have been viewing this course, and much of my own teaching this semester.   In many ways, this quote sums up my visioning.   I want to inspire change.   I want to awaken students to the understanding that change is inevitable, that change is necessary, that the needs are immediate, and that change is already happening.   I want my students to understand that they have the ability to create change; to be change.  I want this for myself, for my family, my children, and for my students.

Inspiring Change towards Sustainability: The New Curriculum

Now that I am about a week or two into this course, I can see that the concepts of sustainability, wellbeing, and hope are not only central to my path through this course, but will also quickly become central in my teaching practice as well.  I feel as though I am coming to a place where I am able to find new meaning, value, and purpose in teaching.  The idea of hope to inspire and create change to work towards a sustainable planet is not just an important concept.  It is much, much larger than that.  In many ways it is becoming clear to me that creating change toward sustainability is the new curriculum.  These are the most important ideas among all curricular concepts, and they need to find their way and permeate into all curricular areas. 

There are many important things that teachers do.  Teachers create change in many ways.  But all of the ways in which we impact children are really moot if we are not able to inspire children to make change in this world, quickly.  It is becoming blatantly obvious that we are living in a completely unstable and unsustainable world.  That must change.  Rapid change is needed.  Drastic and radical change is needed.  If we don’t soon begin to head in the direction of sustainable systems, then I don’t see how it makes any difference to inspire children to read, write, draw, or dance.

Sustainability, change, and renewal.  It is the new curriculum.  This is what we need to be teaching in our English courses, in our visual art classes, in math, even in phys.ed and drama and shop classes, and yes certainly in social studies and in the sciences.  It is the new curriculum, at all levels.  It is necessary to work its way into all areas of education.

On my rock… writing to… myself…

A portion of the assessment of my current graduate course is on the completion of an analysis journal.  Dr. Pickard has asked us (the students of EC&I 871 – Sustaining Wellbeing through H.O.P.E.) to find a space at least once a week to sit and reflect upon the readings, presentations, and activities that will be presented throughout the class.   Basically the premise is to “get on your rock” and reflect upon and analyse your development through the class.

In the past, I have found blogging to be a useful method of reflecting and analysis.  I have blogged as part of a network in which each member would regularly read and respond to eachothers’ blog entries.  Although there was much value to the presence of a network and an audience, much of the value of blogging was in the ability to communicate, develop, and articulate thoughts and ideas as they developed in relation to the readings and other course materials.  It is most likely that this most recent blogging activity will not have any audience (one is not intended).  I suppose in a way this is a sort of disclaimer to say that I am really writing to myself, journaling, in order to further develop my own thoughts.  Yet also this is meant to say that an audience is certainly welcome, as I do understand that there is much value when discussions arise.  So if you are reading any of my posts, and you are inclined to respond, please do.

At some point, as this develops, I may intend for this blog to reach and audience… perhaps my classes of high school students.  That is something I have not yet experienced.  We’ll see how this goes…

Sustainability and Well-being…hmmm…

Somewhere along my journey, although from where I can’t remember, I’ve managed to hear the following words of wisdom.  “Although it may often appear otherwise, rest peacefully knowing that everything is working out exactly as it was meant to be.”  Of course, I have paraphrased here, from my memory, but the point is clear.   Every so often things happen seemingly by chance that later appear to have been destined to occur.

As I reflect on the path that has led me to my current study, I get similar feelings of destiny.  How did I come to be a graduate student of educational reform?  How did I become interested in concepts of Sustainability, Well-being, and Hope?  As I reflect on my choices, I get a feeling that there are greater forces at work; that stars are aligning;  and that all things are coming to a point.

I’ve spent great amounts of time and energy over the last year or so contemplating on how I will complete my studies as a graduate student in education curriculum and instruction.  I’ve had to consider my intentions and underlying reasons to complete a Master’s degree all-together.  In the process, I’ve moved away from my original plan to complete a thesis and instead, have been considering project options.  These changes led me to seek out course offerings for this fall semester.  When I came across a course entitled Sustaining Well-being through HOPE (Health, Outdoor and Physical Education), I wasn’t initially sure what to think.  I do recall being intrigued by a couple of words: Well-being and Hope.  Perhaps it was because each of these terms seems rather ambiguous, even somewhat like an open door through which to explore.  And perhaps it is that on some conscious or some subconscious level I have realized that I am in persuit of health and well-being; of my own personal health and well-being (both mental and physical) as well as that of my our world and society; for our students and for my children.

Blog by e-mail

 A cool new feature that has been added since I last blogged, is the blogging by e-mail tool.   Apparently you can set up your blog space so that you can create a post simply by sending and e-mail.  Sounds very cool.  I must try this out. 

Yes.  This works, and is very cool.

I’m Back… with HOPE.

This blog space, which I once called my Ed. Tech Weblog, is about to become active again.   Originally this space was created and used to blog and reflect about experiences that I have lived through my graduate studies in education technology.  More specifically, the blog was created as part of my involvement with a network of educators that were studying together in E.C. & I. 831 with Dr. Alec Couros.

I am returning to this web space and to the world of blogging with a new focus.  I am currently taking a graduate course in Education from Dr. Garth Pickard entitled Sustaining Wellbeing through H.O.P.E.  I found the process of blogging to be very helpful in organizing my thoughts, developing my thinking and writing through reflection, and I enjoyed several discussions posed through responses to my blog posts.  I am thinking about taking my blogging to a new level, and to begin blogging with my students.  More to come on that notion soon… anyway whatever I’ve posted in 2008 relates to my exploration of new and emerging technologies in education - and all new posts will relate to the complex concepts of sustainability, wellbeing, and of course… hope.

EC&I Wrap-up Reflections

My experiences throughout this course have been extremely valuable.  I’ve found this class to be truly excellent; this is the definition of professional development.

What I’ve accomplished in this course epitomizes the reasons for which I began to take on the challenge to study for my Masters degree.  This class has been the spark that I needed.  In the last couple of years working with Ed. Tech, I’ve had grand ideas, but have been so focused on repairing computers and network cabling, that these ideas were seldom implemented.  This class has prompted me to take a lot of great ideas and theory of educational technology and put them into use in my own teaching practice. 

This class has really pushed me forward and has really challenged my tech. abilities and my openness to new educational philosophies.  Before this course began I was not completely comfortable with creating a sense of openness to my classroom.  I wasn’t completely confident that what I was doing was worthy of sharing.  I had different views (far more pessimistic views) on the value and power of blogging than I do today.  Although I’m not certain that I will continue to blog as often, I will continue my classroom blog.  I’ve witnessed so many great examples of student blogging, that I believe this will be my next step in this journey. 

I am truly grateful for the work that has been done by everybody that is involved in this course.  Your contributions have challenged me, and you have truly shaped my continued learning.  For this I am very thankful.

May your Gods bless you in your future endeavors… and long live the power of your network!

Thank you,

Ryan Flood

 

Summary of Major Digital Project

This video was put together as a summary and reflection on the work that has been so far towards my major digital project for EC&I 831. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfHNlfzUvtM

For this major project, I created what could best be described as my teaching web space.  The central part of my teaching web space is my wordpress blog.

 1)  This digital project was created with a couple of objectives in mind.  The first objective was this web-space would act as a global bulletin board – or digital chalkboard for students to keep track of assignments, due dates, expectations, and other details pertaining to the class.  A majority of my students were not using agendas or anything else in order to keep track of this information.

 2)  The web-space also acts a storage space for files, and documents.  This ‘Digital’ Chalkboard is now clickable, and students can open and save files, view and print documents.  Any time, Anywhere they have access.

 3)  A third objective is to communicate information to parents.  To create an open-ness or transparency to my classroom and allow and help parents and Guardians to be aware what is happening in my courses.

 4)  Another objective is to publish student works on-line to a global community in order to allow students to receive a greater audience, and a larger amount of feedback.

 I feel as though I have achieved some significant levels of success for each of these objectives.

 A large amount of information, updated, documents and course content, is available in a very organized structure on-line.  And it’s being used.  The statistics for views of this web-space are quite encouraging.

Information is there for parents, and those who choose to view it have left encouraging comments.  Occasional updates have been sent to parents by an e-mail distribution list.

The students my classes have received greater amounts of feedback from larger audience online.

I too have received some really great feedback from parents, from administration and from my superintendent.

Update:  Today my Visual Art 20/30 students added their Voicethread projects to my Wikispace.