Letting Go...Sounds Scary

Chris Lehmann discusses three biases in the introduction to his webinar Inquiry: The Very First Step In the Process of Learning.   The second of which caught my attention the most.  He stated that many people feel that school is there to provide a 21st century workforce, but he feels that schools should help students develop into the citizens needed for the 21st century.  I could not agree more.  Inquiry based learning hinges on teaching students to think for themselves in any situation.  When I was in school, and even today, students were taught a set of curricula.  They were expected to learn facts and figures and then use them in everyday life.  Many students have difficulty in reasoning why and how school and the real world go together.  Think about it.  How many times have you heard a student ask - why do I need to learn this?  I have asked this question many times myself.  Fortunately I had parents and several teachers that pushed me into situations that lead me to learn the "why & how".  In fact, my Mom was into Maker Spaces long before they became hip.  She would supply me with gadgets and gizmos that helped me explore the world.  I still use what I learned from those lessons with the students and adults I interact with.

My first years of teaching were spent showing third graders how to behave around other people.  We worked hard to break the cycle of impulsivity that exploded from them at the slightest provocation.  My students, for the most part, were responsible for raising themselves.  This caused them to look out for the own needs and neglect or even trample the needs of others.  Here is where my years of team sports, coaching and referring came into play like they did for Grant Wiggins in his article Great Teaching Means Letting Go. I used team related activities to help instill in them the values that they would need as they continued through school and into the workforce.  The students discovered ways to relate to one another and solve problems with little intervention from me.  This did not happen overnight.  We spent weeks and months trying different approaches to learning and working together.  The turning point came when we brought our lessons from the class to the fields outside our school.  My students researched the game of soccer.  They taught each other the rules and even devised a plan to mark the lines on the field.  It was amazing watching them grow together in a real life situation.  I still have students that visit me and reminisce about our days on the field.  I do not believe we would have been as successful if it were not for me letting go and providing them the opportunity to apply their skills in the real world.

Reflective Searching

I would consider myself to be an intermediate Googler with a tendency towards horizontal information seeking.  As an immigrant into the Google generation I find that I have developed similar searching styles to the kids that grew up with Google. In the ciber briefing paper, The Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future, the Google generation is described as as a group that will scan, flick and 'power browse' their way through digital content to find an answer.  Is this a bad thing?  Well... yes and no.  Limiting myself to skimming countless Internet pages will not provide me with the depth of knowledge needed to continue as a media specialist/teacher.  It will however keep me abreast of the information that is out there.  The trick will be to find the happy medium that allows me to glean important bits of knowledge along with the depth of content integration that I will need to be a successful lifelong learner.  This is where my PLN comes in handy.  It allows me to aggregate a large amount of  content into one location.  If I choose to research further I can.  What I need to do is become a better searcher.  The Even Better Search Results video opened my eyes to power of Google.  who knew you could locate something on the Internet based upon it's color?  Google surprises me every day.  

One of my former coworkers sent me a sticker one day.  It had the letters LMGTFY.  I had no idea what it meant so like everyone else in the world I Googled it.  Come to find out it means "Let Me Google That For You".  These six letters, in a manner of speaking, proved to me that Google had become a fixture in everyday life.  I mean think about it...when you want to look up something on the Internet you Google it.  In many cases Google has become synonymous with the Internet.  If Google has permeated so much of our lives what else are they doing?  The filter bubble Ted Talk video opened my eyes to a little bit more of how Google and other search engines work.  I do not want my Google deciding what I get to see when I search for a topic.  I want to be able to filter my own results based on criteria I set.  Maybe the creators of these bubbles could give me the choice of whether or not to filter my content. 

Embracing the Future of Information Sharing

Each of the four resources for this week's module delve into the world of information and how to share it.  This has always been the goal of education, but as Diana Laufenberg points out in her Ted Talk, the way we receive information has changed drastically.  Technology has permeated every aspect of our lives.  While I grew up in a time where the most powerful piece of tech in a school was a Texas Instrument graphing calculator, my children have devices that bring the whole world into the palm of their hand.  According to the InfoWhelm and Information Fluency, by the year 2009 we had created enough new information that if printed would deforest the Earth 12 times.  With so much information out there how do we find what we need?   Brian Alexander uses a three step process similar to the one Jane Hart created shown below.

Jan's Daily PKM Routine

I have to say that at first look this process was a bit overwhelming.  It seemed like you would have to sit in front of your computer or on a smart phone all day.  Then I took a closer look.  I soon realized that I had to make the technology work for me.  The goal here is to create a method of collecting, filtering, and sharing information.  For me that means finding a tools that gathers information from a variety of sources into one easy to navigate location. Rebel mouse has allowed me to do just that.  Now I don't have to spend countless hours scouring the Internet.  After a few clicks of a mouse the Internet comes to me.  The next step is to help my colleagues and students learn to utilize similar tools to help them save time and learn to find the information they need.

A Little Bit of Me

My name is Chris Brist.  I have been happily married to Naomi for 17 years , I am a father of two (Olivia 14 - Michael 12), and now I am a Media Specialist.  I enjoy meeting new people and helping them with whatever they may need.  Nothing beats a face to face conversation.  I like the nuances of body language, the inflection in a voice, and a person's tone when they talk.  In fact, I used to sit in the mall with my grandmother just to watch people.  You can learn a lot about people and relationships just by watching them.  I have to say it was more fun with Grandma.  I miss our time together.  Anyway...because of this, I have had a hard time embracing blogging and other forms of social media.  However, I am going to wade deeper into the pool of social media this summer.  I have listed three goals below that I hope will help ease me into the deeper water.

Goal 1 - To embrace tools such as blogs, PLNs, and Social Media in an effort to enhance my teaching.
Goal 2 - Expend my knowledge base so that I am a better resource for the staff and students at my school.
Goal 3 - Enjoy learning new things with a group of new people. 

Wish me luck!