Role/Roll Your Own PD (Professional Development)

INTRO

Why should kids have all the fun when they learn?

ROLE/ROLL

I’ve got a granddaughter. She’ll be two years old next month. That kid learns so much so fast. She’s fearless about it, too. She knows what she's about and rolls with it.

Watching her the other day gave me an idea. How does a two year old learn compared to an adult? So I came up with this table based on information contained in the websites referenced below; I probably got the citation form wrong but it’s been a while.

Role/Roll Your Own PD (Professional Development)

References

Child Development Tracker, PBS Approaches to Learning, Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/two/approachestolearning.html August 23, 2015

US Department of Education, Adult Learning Theories, Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2yoAdults August 23, 2015

YOUR OWN PD

Who designs your PD learning experiences? If your answer wasn’t yourself I suggest you take a step back and rethink it. Who knows your interests better than you? Who knows where you want to go and what you want to do in and with your life? I suggest you take some time, as much as you need, to come up with some questions that may shed some light on where you might go for answers.

I'm going to be presenting this at a conference in October. I'll share more about it later.

OUTRO

This entry’s a work-in-progress. I wanted, no needed, to get this thought down for later. I didn’t want this one to be, like too many others, an idea that flitted in for a moment and then was gone forever.

 

 

Redux: Djinn Tech

INTRO

About two months into my tour of duty on NavComSta Diego Garcia I got my Dear John letter. What has stayed with me was she went with a guy more into technology than I was in 1978. Shortly after arriving at Hickam AFB I hightailed it over to ComputerLand Honolulu and bought my first personal computer: a TRS-80 Model 1 Level II.

DJINN

Ever since I can remember I’ve been enamored (a word, btw, my ex taught me) by technology. One of my uncles was a Navy radioman during WWII. He was all the time tinkering with stuff. I got into that TRS-80 for a couple of months; all I really remember about it was how gray it was. I soon traded up to an Apple ][ (integer model). I’ve been an Apple fanboy ever since. I bought one of the first Macintosh computers. Well I remember shopping for software and finding none. It was a sad feeling.

These long forgotten memories welled up in my mind yesterday. After being exposed to oodles of Google Chrome and Chromebook goodness during three days of CueRockStar I decided to buy one. Only the stores I went to had only one or two models available. At Staples they only had display models: none in stock. At a Best Buy the sales person began arguing with me about how I NEEDED Windows 10 as soon as I asked “Where are your Chromebooks?” As I left the store to give OfficeDepot a try I recollected my early Apple days. It felt good thinking different again.

OUTRO

Christy Fennewald, at great peril I believe, revealed the Secrets of a Google Ninja during her first CueRockStar session.

My take is it’s less about becoming a ninja and more about becoming a djinn. That’s how it was with me and my trusty Apple ][ and early Mac. I’m going back out again today and I will come home with a Chromebook.

What’s a Meta You?

INTRO

It's Jon's fault.

WHAT'S A META(COGNITION) YOU?

I'm in Las Vegas through Friday. I'm participating in Cue Rockstar Las Vegas edition. Someone asked me a little while ago what I thought about it.

To review: Since EdCampWestTexas in 2013 the bulk of my PD has come from learning from and sharing with K-12 educators. It occurred to me the other day that I'm at the point where I'm learning less about things (educational technology tools) and more about metacognition: How others practices inform and inspire my learning experience design work.

So far I've learned how teachers design learning experiences using Google applications. I'm in the process of learning about PBL/IBL (more on these later).

OUTRO

I like how experiential CUEROCKSTAR is. Even though we're not making things (so far) there is the two-way dialogue reminiscent of EdCamp. There's more time for conversation. The cool part is going deep on why teachers applied pedagogy and technology to content/context.

Gotta go. Lots going on