Random Musings

As I worked with a colleague this afternoon on a class we are teaching, I proposed that we ask participants to list their core beliefs about instructional technology….and that has had me thinking all evening.  What are MY core beliefs–and can they be separated from my beliefs about what’s good for kids and education.  Things I believe about education:

• every kid can learn (no caveats)
• that learning is best when it challenges students to create their own learning
• that doing the above is VERY hard work
• that lecture is inappropriate  and ineffective as a dominant mode of instruction
• that we must help kids make their own connections–and create new connections, among different pieces of information
• that there is some core information that it’s just easier to know than to have to look up….and that core knowledge (but NOT E.D. Hirsch) can provide a framework for creating your own learning

If this seems contradictory, I guess it is….but I will need to clear my own head before this class starts–or at least begin to put my personal framework down on paper instead of just in my head.

I originally promised that I would force myself to write regularly–but then I realized that I’m not a writer so, as the new school year starts, I will begin again.  I frequently have things to say…but don’t take the time to write them.  As I begin to take a stand on web 2.0 tools in the classroom, it’s only right that I experience, in some way, what I’m asking teachers to grab by the tail.