I’m looking forward to learning from all y’all during this year’s conference.

Thank you for putting together a unique keynote. I always say to my students, “life is about working smarter not harder.” Your podcast style takes full advantage of that. I can identify the idea of being on the road at 6:30 am with your children in the backseat (as I do the same thing).

Your struggles with content filtering is a major issue many of us face on a daily basis. Keep fighting the good fight.

You had me thinking long and hard about all the levels of “access” that we need to examine and address.

You say: “Everyone, novice and experienced, teacher and student, brings their ideas and experiences with them, ready to share with the world.” And here comes the novice… Having resisted the temptation of stepping off the well- trodden track for a while now, I am truly excited about “travelling together” to discover the world that has many of my colleagues, as well as our students, deeply entwined…or should I say, freed up to fly off into the unknown…

I agree! It is important to teach students how to converse, listen to each other, colloborate – whether in groups in the same room or in the distance.

Assessing these skills is another issue – but so important. That’s why I think it’s critical to ask students to reflect in writing on what they’ve learned after a group discussion and WHO they learned it from. How did they move the group forward – what contribution did they make that did that?

And then you bring up the issue of translating into grades – Thanks for helping me realize other educators rassle with the same issues.

Thanks for taking the time.

I too enjoyed your keynote, it was really nice to get your perspective and peeks into your classroom routine.

IMHO – Just looking at it from a different perspective – hopefully district filters will improve in order to have a local overide for educators such as yourself, but I’m not sure all educators are at the same point as you, with regards to teaching their classes about information literacy. Although, I want them to, that doesn’t mean that they are doing so. I think that’s where filters for younger students in particular are useful. When we don’t have 100% compliance to an AUP, or teachers till send their kids to computers to “play” unsurpervised, and we are not teaching students to be safe online then there is the offer of at least minimal protection.

Another point – make sure you have educators at the helm on who decides what is filtered. That way you can explain the educattional purpose and have content unblocked, whether temporarily or not. Although this does effect serendipity, it requires a bit of preplanning and previewing content before in is displayed in the classroom. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Take Care and again I really enjoyed your podcast keynote.

I really enjoyed your approach to your keynote. I felt like I was along for the ride in the car or sitting on the patio listening to the thunder. It was good to follow your thought processes and hear about the ideas and issues you face with your students. I’ll be listening to this again, but just at first blush, your comments are valuable and important to the world of education. Thanks for sharing your expertise with the rest of us.