As I leave the magical world of NECC here are my learnings and thoughts….
Let the pedagogy drive the technology not the other way around….don’t do technology because, “yee ha” we love technology, but integrate web 2.0, and all of our tools to engage kids in their own learning process. We need to educate our students any way we can, in any engaging and important way we can and that, in this day and age includes technology.
The keynote speaker, Andrew Zolli, spoke about all of the demographics and how things are changes. Very important stuff. And what it comes down to is as with the pedagogy of teaching and knowing your students, we need to know what we are dealing with, who our audience is, who are customers are, who our students are and will be in this 21st century as we move forward.
As we encounter students with special needs, we differentiate our instruction accordingly to meet those learners in their areas. Well as we continue to move through this 21st century world of education we increasingly have the tools necessary to meet ALL learners at their developmental needs and levels, and why shouldn’t we? We owe it to them to provide them with the BEST education possible with all of the tools and the processes possible. Ask one question. What would you want for your child? Or your grandchild? You’d want the BEST. You’d want someone meeting HIS or HER particular learning needs. NOT some global representation of a group of possible needs. You would want his or her specific learning needs met. And that is what we owe to each and every learner each and every day. The digital learning, web 2.0, technology integration, and the pedagogy behind these tools affords us the opportunity to accomplish this differentiation at every level.
I am leaving NECC with such a renewed vision, and hope with high expectations that I can impact this vision for differentiation for each and every learner in my school district, where our common thread is anchored in leadership for learning and excellence in all that we do for kids. They deserve that and I deserve that. I didn’t come into education to be mediocre. I came into education to make a difference. Didn’t you?
This has been an incredible journey this week for me personally. What an adventure and wonderful story I have to tell my collegues at home. Who will believe that people would rather blog together and talk than go to sessions. Who would believe that the thing called twitter gained steam. I could go on and on and as I read all of my yodas blogs, I get the sense that I was part of something very powerful and real. I really believe that it was a moment in time, and that I was extremely fortuntate to have been a part of that, and also that I contributed to it in some small way.
The beauty is that it is NOT over because the conversations and the learning will be continuing, and as a matter of fact it is continuing as we speek! So I’ll go to work to day, with a clear vision of a solid direction, some excellent ideas, and faith that I am not alone on this evangelical journey and that I have a whole world of people out there who will think with me and share with me. It doesn’t get any better than that!
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