Will Richardson

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Collaborate, Construct, Content

July 23, 2004 By Will Richardson

I wish I could have kept track how many times I said the words “collaborate,” “construct” and “content” during my stay in Boston this week. It must have run into the hundreds without question. And there seemed to be a palpable excitement about blogging. It was pretty cool.

So today I read that Anne is collaborating to construct content. Go figure.

Now I’m thinking I can just set this up in weblogs. There will still be one student, one business partner but this gives a better way to open up the communication to the rest of the class, parents, and others. I pitched the idea to the principal. She liked it. Next up is to meet with the General Mills CEO.

I’m thinking that I could have two authors to a weblog to begin with with possibility of adding more. They could post pack and forth and students and educators could comment. I’m liking this more and more.

I thought one of the most interesting statements coming out of the conference was from a participant who wrote the following in the conference blog:

My first thought following the opening words of our keynote speaker was, “My God, classroom walls have become a hazard!” In the past, walls helped create an environment that promoted learning; now, walls are just one item in a long list of factors that inhibit learning. Walls in our classrooms, walls in our thinking.

It’s all about getting outside those walls. Everyone I talked to about blogs was thinking that way, talking about really “building communities” that extend far outside their own schools. I wish we could have had just one big brainstorming session at the end to really push each other’s thinking on it.

Filed Under: General, On My Mind

Comments

  1. Jim Rusconi says

    July 26, 2004 at 4:47 am

    Hey Will, I enjoyed your talks.

    I have a question
    I have built my wiki (http://www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?wikiid=6149&doc=Computer%20Graphics)

    and my Blog (http://www.novemberlearning.com/blogs/JimRusconi/)

    But despite what Kevin Costner says no one has come to play on my Field of Dreams. This is not a new problem for me. I tried to get the faculty interested in online meetings via message boards a few years ago. If ever I saw a real motivation to use a technology it would be to reduce the number of faculty meetings and increase the opportunity for real discussion on a faculty. I was able to convince the english and science depts. to have their Department meetings on-line but the interest waned almost immediately. (I think that the only aggreed initially because the wanted to help me out)
    I know I will be able to get my kids to use these tools because I have the initial club of a grade to beat them up with. (I hope that once they start using them they will see the value and become more internally motivated.) I guess this is half rant and half question. Do you know anyone whos has used message boards for faculty communication?? It just seems to me that it would be a great collaborative too for teachers. Keep on mind tyhose walls separate teachers from each other as much as the keep kids from the outside world.

  2. Jim Rusconi says

    July 26, 2004 at 4:50 am

    Is there a way to edit your posts. Most message boards I have used allow you to go back and fix typos.

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