Bit By Bit

I listened to Bud Hunt’s “Journey through the Week as I Journey Up (or Down) the Road” Keynote today. I appreciated how it sounded like his regular podcasts (i.e., car sounds, etc) and it again made me redefine the word “keynote”.

Several things he said stuck with me. One was how we must first learn the “why” of wanting to communicate (through blogs/podcast) before learning “how”… that this will make the “how” easier. Very true. There can be a rush to jump on any “bandwagon” — including the technology bandwagon— and we must constantly remind ourselves that in order to adopt these new tools, we must completely understand our “purpose” and know how the changes are making learning better. These new tools must be “disruptive” and help us to teach in new ways, not just simply make the old ways quicker or easier. In order for these tools to be transformational, they have to open opportunities that wouldn’t be possible without them.

In using these tools, Bud talks about how we can make connections globally that could never have happened before, but that we must also look at the possibilities for connections on the local level as well. I agree. I think there is the tendency to “shoot big” when thinking of the global possibilities with the web, but we might miss out on the collaboration that could happen with the school down the road, or even, the classroom down the hall. These tools can help establish these connections as well, and further enhance those connections in new ways.

Bud talks about the issue of access, and defines that to mean access on different levels. Not just access to the tools, but also access to information — which could be hampered by filters (filtering software is a fine “balancing act” between access and protection). I think the issue of universal access has not really been addressed in most schools/communities. We know that the Internet is becoming more ubiquitous, but there are still many unanswered questions about how to make its delivery unhampered by such things as economics. Simply telling some of my students to go to the Public Library to connect to the Internet just doesn’t cut it.

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