Turkey Crossing

How to get connected with classroom 2.0 tools and most importantly how to get connected with you students.

Will more connections outside of the classroom lead to fewer connections inside the classroom?

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July 15, 2007 04:29 PM PDT

In my push to utilize all the classroom 2.0 tools everyday and connect with every part of the globe will I forget to connect with my kids? Will I forget to continue to forge the class bonds that I work very hard to create each year? In this push to connect with the rest of the world I wonder if we are forgetting to first focus on getting the kids to connect with the person next to them. How can a classroom that does not have respect, camaraderie, and love have meaningful relationships and collaboration online? I have been hearing a lot of people say that we should not ban things like myspace because the kids need to learn how to use the social network tools. I think this call might be coming from the teachers of the 2.0 movement that have that spirit in their class that would lead to meaningful "myspace" usage. I am afraid of allowing it on all of the classrooms that do not have good relationships in the classroom and with teachers that do not have any understanding of respect for kids, or are classroom 2.0 illiterate. Does collaboration need to first happen in class and then move online, or will collaborating online lead to better face-to-face relationships in the classroom? Someone help me out here....

Music by Runaway Hudson...check em' out!

Podcast Summary

This is a podcast about education and my attempt to use classroom 2.0 tools in my classroom. I examine topics that often go unmentioned in education classes, professional development, and journals. In this crazy world of NCLB and amazing technologies entering the classroom, this podcast is a reminder that we need to first give children our love, not our thoughts. If you are focused on getting your kids to get higher test scores and learn facts, this is not the podcast for you. If you are focused on building relationships with your students and letting them develop the skills needed to survive in the 21st Century, then take a listen.

My Blog and wiki

http://www.blogush.edublogs.org
http://www.edhead.wikispaces.com
http://www.morecowbell.wikispaces.com

Class wiki and Blog

www.collaborationnation.wikispaces.com
www.pbogush.edublogs.org

The following story captures the spirit of my podcast.

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.
As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."
As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."
The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."
I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea.
...based on the story by Loren Eisley