Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

I am in overload -- I listened to Stephen Downes today. He used analogies to teach, making me think that networks are modeled in everything from river tributaries to the human mind to the networks built over the Internet. Some connections are explainable and logical, but many are the product of chaos theory at work. He makes a lot of sense and I think that curriculum directors everywhere should listen to the audio file of his presentation today and look at his Powerpoints . Then, I spent time in Second Life , learning and thinking (and taking pictures (see them to the right.) I made connections with many new teachers who are now my "friends" in second life. I learned so much. (The best tour guide is Beth Ritter-Guth -- she is helpful and outstanding - a perfect person to take a group in. If you have a group going in soon, please mention it to me so I can share it with those who want to try it out!) I really want us to figure out a way to have teacher / student areas aw...

I'd like to share a transcript of an interview I did with Stephen Hogg today. For many new readers who wonder how I started in wikis and how beginners get started, it includes a lot of great information. (Note: Interesting thing about campfire, it shows the time of the host -- So, this was 2 hours later my time -- just a note b/c I have a rule that I don't blog at school.) Stephen H. Where do you teach and what grades/classes do you teach? Vicki D. I teach at Westwood Schools in Camilla GA Vicki D. I teach one semester of keyboarding to 8 th grade and 8 weeks to 5 th grade. Vicki D. I teach Computer Fundamentals to 9 th , Computer Science to 10 th Stephen H. So is your school K-12? Vicki D. and electives to juniors and seniors including computer graphic design (1 semester) and accounting (1 semester) Vicki D. K3-12 th grade -- private school with 350 students. Stephen H. Wow, that is a lot of preps you h...

It is very late and I've had a long day, however I want you to have a copy of the great presentation by Will Richardson today . He challenges teachers to look for ways to connect our students. This is quite appropriate for me in that tomorrow, my students have a great opportunity to interview a nanotechnology expert, Earl Boysen, author of Nanotechnology for Dummies and www.understandingnano.com - he is also a columnist for Nanotechnology . He is a fascinating person and I am very grateful for his willingness to share. We will record the discussion and I'll post it on my Cool Cat Teacher podcast this week. Why are we looking at nanotechnology? The reason that we are having this discussion is that our computer science book covers hardware very well, but has absolutely nothing on nanotechnology . Nanotech is an essential area of understanding for any classroom looking at science or technology and the impacts are going to be far reaching. So, I had my students elect a projec...

Some of you participating in the connectivism conference can go into the connectivism Moodle , however some of you haven't been able to participate since the conference is closed. I have been watching with interest the phenomenal discussion that Jason Hando started about bringing connectivism to the classroom. I'd like to share with you two comments that got me thinking tonight! Practical ways to facilitate connectivism in a school classroom? by Jason Hando - Friday, 2 February 2007, 12:19 PM I am interested in finding out practical ways to adopt connectivism in the classroom [particularly under 18 year old education]. I can imagine that incorporating global projects, where students collaborate with other schools and experts in subject areas, would be one way. Are there other ideas? Re: Practical ways to facilitate connectivism in a school classroom? by Peter Clitheroe - Friday, 2 February 2007, 12:28 PM I wonder whether there is some fundamental work to be done with l...

I am so fortunate that today my planning period allowed me to attend George Siemen's Connectivism online conference where 197 people from around the world listened and chatted through George's presentation about his connectivism theories and how they relate to education. I am one of the context filters for K12 education. I am reflecting on the moodle and on my blog here on the discussions and presentation today. Here are my primary thoughts from my notes on his presentation. George gave an overview of the connectivist theory. What I got out of the discussion was many other items of discussion: The infrastructure of dreams is growing up around our feet. Visionaries have been talking about what can be done and suddenly have woken up and realized it can be done today. The institutional level has not responded to the change in infrastructure. George talked about how business has changed (somewhat) but that education has not. I would argue that businesses have a litmus test th...