Naming the Puppy

Tonight I logged in to Google Docs and edited a document that I am working on with my team from a computer troubleshooting course. My team members will respond by editing the same document. We will email each other and disuss the progress of the document. Then I logged in to Google Sites and made some adjustments to my PBL site that I am working on for another class. I fully expect that the other students will read and comment on my progress (to some extent). I will use their feedback to improve my project. Obviously, many people, myself included, are already immersed in e-learning.  Previous to reading an article about PLE (personal learning environment) I hadn't really considered the learning situation I am actively involved in. The PLE model allows us to think of this learning environment not only as a means of communicating with other students and our professors, but as a means of learning and organizing in one's own personal way with the input and objective criticism of the public domain.
After reading the Personal Learning Environment Framework at Mohamed Amine Chatti's site the real attraction to PLE for me is the concept of putting students " in charge of their own learning processes, challenging them to reflect on the tools and resources that help them learn best." (Chatti, et al, 2007).
Learning how to be an online learner has been the biggest challenge for me while taking many of my ed tech courses online. At first I was very frustrated and felt that the personal connection was lost in this model, but having a greater comfort level with it at this point, I feel that I am learning how to use online resources to organize data, connect with others, and discern reliable info from unreliable info. Being given the freedom to work on projects at your own pace, and absorb info the way it makes sense to you, allows for learning in a way that makes sense to the individual. I am seeing now that each person involved in my courses has their own methods for completing projects, keeping up with work and connecting with others. Whatever works for the individual is acceptable.
I wonder how this model of learning applies to the younger grades. Of course, allowing for open-ended projects (even when they're not based online) is already allowing students a certain amount of educational freedom within a structured environment, but at what age do students learn to be truly aware of their learning styles and when are they able to have a certain amount of autonomy over the learning process?  It would be interesting to conduct a study of gradewide online projects within a PLE framework to see where the greatest success lies in terms of pre-college age students.

Social Networking and Students

In perusing educational blogs, I came across this one (more of a blurb than a blog) about social networking and students. NYC Educator blogs about friending your students on facebook which I think is so completely inappropriate I don't even know how to respond. It seems more prevalent at the high school level where students may be more mature, and maybe teachers have a harder time distinguishing the teacher/student relationship from the relationship with an intellectually blossoming senior student. While I don't think there is any situation that should condone inviting a student into a teacher's social network, I also don't think teachers should be wrongly accused by students, and then have to pay for these accusations. Even when they turn out not to be true, the teacher's career is generally ruined.
In a nutshell, be clear about maintining your private social life as your own personal information. Do not share personal sites with students. Keep any use of social networking for educational purposes strictly outlined and user protected. As the blogger at NYC Educator says..."I don't friend students on Facebook, and I'd advise you not to do so either.  Simply having done that could potentially bolster a false claim against you". Don't put yourself in the position of having to defend your actions.

Wikis in Education

Are you sick of the heaps of binders you have in storage full of meeting notes, IST's, 504's, collaboration material, etc...? The Innovative Educator blog site had some great information about how to use wikis not only in the classroom, but also as teachers and administrators. The blog "The Innovative Educator: 8 Ways to Use A School Wiki to Increase Communication, Collaboration and to Enrich Instruction" outlines several good practices for wikis. I agree with many of the suggestions and I feel that confining all the daily materials in one nice, neat package is very appealing in a  profession where we are all running around adrift in a sea of paperwork. ANd that doesn't even include all the student paperwork, I'm just talking daily management here.
One of the first suggestions is
"1. Decrease Disruption of Instructional Time with Digital Daily Announcements".
This happens to be the only use of wiki that I don't agree with amongst the other useful possibilities. This is assuming you have a classroom full of very attentive, very responsible students that will actually sit and thouroughly read the day's announcements (and then not instantly forget them). The thought of taking the time to have each and every kid get situated with a working laptop (assuming there are enough for every kid in the whole school to use..which there aren't), log on (let me share with you that on a daily basis at least 10 of my students come to me and ask for their password to log on, which they have forgotten in the transfer from one class to the next..and then return to me later to ask again), read the announcements, and THEN start class...I just don't see the point. The announcements take 2  minutes at most and serve as a good reminder to students. This is one of those situations where I feel that pushing technology just for the sake of technology is the drive.
That comment aside, I see a lot of merit in using wiki's for organizing meetings, uncluttering desks, having schedules posted and collaborating on curriculum maps.
Specifically, our school is working on a schoolwide push towards better acquisition of vocabulary, drawing connections between classes in terms of term usage. A wiki would be very useful for starting a vocab list that each teacher can add to. The list could then be organized according to usage and definition and easily available for teachers to edit or peruse for their own classes.
My only question here really is a question of time. The amount of time it takes to sit down at a computer, read all the necessary information, and then provide input and respond to issues, isn't granted to the typical teacher during the school day. Time would need to be provided so that staff could properly use the wikis successfully.