The Direction of this Blog

With much thought, I've decided to refocus the direction of my blog. There are a number of excellent resources that are available discussing the newest web2.0 technologies. I will eventually post some links to the ones I like. I don't see the usefulness of reiterating what already exists.

So, what to do. I am going to focus on the integration of new ideas into the classroom; looking at the holistic idea of teaching. This is something that I have not been able to find elsewhere (although I have no doubts it exists in the blogosphere somewhere). I want to focus in on the art of teaching while not losing sight of the science. I will do this by analysing and reflecting upon my own practice as I delve deeper into the pedagogical ideas I have. With this, I hope to generate conversation as we collaborate to become better teachers.

I will still look at new technologies. However, instead of just talking about them, I want to focus on integrating them within the big picture of teaching. Because if they don't add to the picture, then maybe they don't belong in the classroom. I don't know. I guess we will find out ...

More depth on yesterday's post

I feel that I should explore the introduction in yesterday's post a bit more. I want to define my current educational philosophy on technology and teaching. I tend towards Ursula Franklin's views on technology: that it is a set of practices that exists here and now. According to Franklin, "Technology involves organization, procedures, symbols, new words, equations, and, most of all, a mindset."[1] So, in essence technology is anything that we use to solve any problem. I find this definition to be much truer to my sense of technology.

So, that means that on this site we could examine almost anything ... which is exciting. However, I think I will start with some uses of some of the things you find on this blog, such as: twitter, apture, and the blog itself.

Until tomorrow ...


[1] Franklin, Ursula. (1992) The Real World of Technology. (CBC Massey lectures series.) Concord, ON: House of Anansi Press Limited. ISBN 0-88784-531-2