Will Richardson reflected on his experiences at NECC. As he did so, he picked out a few choice quotes from those who responded to the event.

Consider some foundation rattling statements, like the point of integrating technology in education:

So, it is not a question of whether these technologies add value somehow to education, but the reverse, can education add value to the communications and information technologies of our present day world, and its future?

Or the purpose of schooling:

Educators often think that school is the point, when it needs to be the path.

But the best one of all I think is:

It is the job of education to alter itself to prove itself of value to the world which now exists.

Richardson linked them all up nicely in his blog. His entry and the comments that follow are a great read!

My teacher trainees maintain reflection blogs and I have been wondering if my strategy of using a game-based approach to “teach” game-based learning was having an impact. Thanks to RSS feeds, I got to step inside the heads of my trainees to see for myself.

Based on those who have reflected already, I’d say yes. Some wrote long entries and others were more succinct. But I think that they wrote about what was meaningful to them.

As an instructor, reading these blogs brings me much satisfaction and frustration. Satisfaction because I see how my trainees have learned things both planned and unplanned. Frustration because I spot disturbing mindsets or lingering misconceptions. But at least I know these exist because they share them with me and I can address them, if necessary, one on one.

So here are a few choice blog links in case you are interested, dear reader. I was happy to see how thoughts and perspectives shifted, but the best ones were those who blogged regularly so I could see the their thoughts in motion. Yvonne and Eunice were examples of this.

Like Keiko and Jillian, many of my bloggers shared their shifts in mindsets toward the end of their gaming experiences. They typically cited how their perspectives on games changed from something irrelevant or only for fun to something potentially powerful and meaningful for learning.

Pushing the envelope further, Mei Ping and Wei Li drew knowledge gleaned from other classes or other experiences to talk about subconscious learning and the hidden curriculum. Bloggers like Mun Ling and Jacklyn drew threads through the demo presentations, Gee’s thoughts, their readings, and/or their experiences. Seeing how they were actively connecting the dots on their own made me pump my fist in the air and go “Yes!”

Finally, to those of you like Jacklyn who bought a Wii as a result of playing at the MxL, I must say this: I should get a commission from Nintendo for providing free advertising!

It’s not every day that you see a 102-year-old man in a YouTube video.

And he has a point. English language can seem dumb at times.

The fact of the matter is that English language is evolving and we might have to accept some horrible spelling in the not-too-distant future. Consider this Wired article How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand.

We can somehow accept the fact that something as fundamental as the language we communicate with will change with the times. We also recognise that technology evolves faster than we can respond in terms of legislation and best practices.

In the face of change, it is human to resist it, but I think that there is thoughtful resistance and stubborn resistance. Those who are thoughtfully resistant know how to weigh the pros and cons of technology; those who are stubborn simply cling to old ways regardless.

Teaching and learning must also change, but not thoughtlessly or for the sake of change. It must change to embrace helpful technologies and to address the needs of our learners. I hope that by requiring my 70 preservice teachers to maintain their own blogs, I have started a process of critical and creative reflection.

Make that reflekshun.

Oh, getting back to the spritely old man, I should point out that he was using technology (flip cards) to make his point visually and more impactful. Simple, but effective. That is one secret to any technology integration!

At this point of the academic semester, I know that many of my pre-service teachers will start feeling the stress. How do I know?

In part because the redesigned ICT course requires a lot of critical content to be covered over two weeks. I have opted to lighten the load somewhat by assigning groups to just two pedagogical approaches and to eventually create references using the wiki book approach.

I also know that the stress levels may be going up based on their blog entries.

Ari felt the heat and was honest about it. But I’d remind her and others who have similar feelings that I do not expect them to absorb everything in such a short period of time. Such learning is not meaningful. Engaged learning takes place over a longer period of time. This is another reason why I got them to the edit their own wikis: To engage them when they were more ready and when they had a bit more time.

But I am also very encouraged to note that others like Serene are beginning to make connections with topics from previous weeks and my blog AND are looking ahead as well. This is evidence of taking ownership of learning and the power of reflective learning!

Previously I wrote about one reason why I liked my trainees to maintain their own blogs: I get to see what is going on in their minds.

Other reasons are the sense of ownership of learning, the sharing of resources, and critical reflection. I’ll cite one example of each in just the 2nd week of class.

Towards the end of her second blog entry, Serene wrote about how she had a burning question on the outcomes of learning with ICT. She discovered some answers as part of this week’s online activity. A perfect example of actively seeking answers to your own questions! Keep it up, Serene!

One of the four Andrews in my classes shared an article from the Today paper about EduMall 2.0. It is going to be more wiki-like! BTW, here is some insider news: One of the ICT instructors will be in charge of EduMall 2.0 soon (it’s not me). Thanks for sharing the news, Andrew! To all: Note that where possible, you should provide a link to the resource.

Lian Siong reflected critically on an important issue. In order to promote engaged learning, we need to develop learners who are good self regulators (and self evaluators I might add). However, our current assessment system might prevent such engagement. Read all of Lian Siong’s entry and share your thoughts there or here!

In another blog, Kok Leong felt that the success of engaged learning depended on the attitude of the learners and the content to be taught. Indeed it does, and on many other factors too. But there is one key factor which I will not mention for the moment. Care to guess what it might be?