Cindy Wambeam wrote:
> I'd like to invite everyone on this list to contribute wrap-up comments
> during our final week of this year's online conference.
>
> Ending thoughts?
First, thanks to all who contributed to the success of CW2K in both its
online and its face to face incarnations. For two years running now--an
unbroken record I look forward to keeping intact over many more years--the CW
Online activities have played a large role in making the f2f conference so
enjoyable and rewarding.
Seems like I meet pretty much all of my favorite teachers and colleagues here,
for one thing. Plus, the list discussions, MOO sessions, and courseware
demonstrations that take place in the weeks prior to the conference not only
make me eager to put faces to names, but also extend both the joy and the
reach of the conference. (For instance, at least two of our participants in
Town Hall Two could not come to Fort Worth, but they nonetheless added
immeasurably to the overall experience for me, widening my vision of what it
means to be "daring" in the realm of IT.) My only regret is not being able
to attend every synchronous session, but even then the web pages and
discussion logs prove invaluable resources.
(Warning! Shameless solicitation ahead: Please do visit and contribute to
our Town Hall 2 web at http://personal.kwom.com/Kafkaz/townhall2/index.htm if
you haven't already. I'll be updating it soon to reflect your input.)
Then, too, I always feel that CW Online keeps things real, for here we live
the truth that there's nothing distant about distance education, and we do
that by employing the very tools we theorize about. I think it's easy even
(or especially) for "experts" to forget how much work goes into facilitating
an online conference so that it truly creates a community atmosphere. After
the closing luncheon on Sunday, the conference was really over for me, but as
I headed off in search of gifts to bring home to my kids, I happened upon
Tari, Bradley, and Cin all gathered around a table, busily signing official
thank-you letters to the presenters, stuffing envelopes, planning for this
closing week of Online CW2K, and plotting and scheming how to make next year's
version even better for presenters and participants alike. Even better! It's
really humbling to realize how hungrily I consume the fruits of labor I too
seldom take the time either to notice or to acknowledge properly.
<<The second Town Hall in Ft. Worth was quite a vibrant discussion, and it
felt to me as if people wanted to say more. Kathy Fitch, if you'd like to
add a few of your thoughts...or if there are those who rose their hands at
the Town Hall in the hotel but never got a chance to speak...please chime
in now.>>
Thanks for saying so! I wished we all could have stayed for another hour at
least. Many thanks to Nancy Patterson (who reminded us, once again, of both
the incredible accomplishments of our K-12 colleagues and the unique
challenges they face) Eric Crump (whose Interversity vision will utterly
ensnare me yet), Sally Henschel (who read her breathtaking essay perfectly
despite never suspecting for a moment that she would be called upon to do so)
and Michael Day (who is ever the generous colleague and friend) for agreeing
to lead the session , as well as to all who contributed comments and ideas to
the ensuing discussion. If I missed raised hands, I do apologize, but I'm
happy so many hands shot into the air simultaneously that it was tough keeping
track, and I grateful to all who directed our attention to people ready to
speak. (I confess, too, to not operating in a "raise your hand" world very
often. Mostly, my students hop on into things, or I know them well enough to
tell by the look on a face that some idea needs airing *right now,* or we're
meeting in spaces where we can all talk at once without inadvertently
interrupting or silencing each other.)
Anyway, today I'm catching up on my faculty email, and I see an emerging
thread on the relative worth of email forums. More than a little ironic for
the many representatives of the negative position to be playing out their
opposition in the very genre to which they're so stridently objecting, but
there it is. (Ironic, too, that my copy of the techno-negative bargaining
speech I've mentioned at several points came to me by way of an attachment to
an email sent from one of those desk-top machines via that school sponsored
email system on which we apparently spend too much money. Big sigh.) So, on
the one hand I'm left with the image of the brilliant James Reggio burning in
my brain, but on the other I'm busy contemplating those many colleagues here
at home who are doing their self-protective darnedest to fend off the coming
of that bleakly mechanized, dystopian future they envision even as they
"ubiquitously compute," all blissfully unaware that they're already plugged in
to the hilt and have been for a long time now.
After the closing f2f town hall, someone approached me to say something like,
"what you're describing is approaching the teaching of colleagues in the same
way that you'd approach teaching any returning adult student." That's exactly
it, I think. I love learning with and (mostly, I expect) *from* James and his
cohorts (including my own nearly six year old son, whose first response to
meeting his sister was to head into his drawing program to create a picture of
her--all Cubist head and bottle--with the caption "i love lindsey"), but
lately I've been zeroing in on this *other* often invisible but always present
student body--the one made up of my "returning adult" colleagues/students,
who've maybe forgotten that "lifelong" and "just-in-time" learning apply to
teachers, as well, and that if we don't hurry along, we may indeed be
"just-too-late" (though it's *never* too late, my teacherly self says) to
enjoy exploring the learning vistas that might so enrich our (on balance,
still fairly lengthy) lifetimes. I think these students, too, have a great
deal to teach me; namely, they can teach me how best to create the
environments that will facilitate their learning about teaching and
technology.
Fortunately, I also see an email from a colleague expressing her excitement
about and commitment to our ongoing "online hybrid" project. Someone at the
conference was telling me about a Greek word, if I recall correctly, that
means "both/and," though it's typically translated as "either/or." Wish me
luck, then, in creating a "both/and" realm of online teaching and learning
here at College of DuPage--one that encompasses (without restricting) the best
of both DE and CAI, both students and teachers, both new and returning
students, both high-end tools like MOOs and more rudimentary stuff like email
or even word processing. If we're to escape the temptation to "reinscribe the
traditional classroom" or to "fill the adopted courseware"--as Steve and
Trish, respectively, so aptly put it in the formal debate-- we're going to
need to create an atmosphere that not only makes the either/or model (either
you're an online teacher or you aren't) untenable, but also manages to exceed
even the both/and (I'm both an online teacher/student and a f2f
teacher/student--I live both here and there) in favor of moving toward an
appreciation of the *continuum* and *flexibility* of technology.
Timmy's Cubist rendering of his new sister earned a prominent spot on the
refrigerator--heart shaped magnet and all. He didn't have to go "online" to
make it, but he did have to choose to enter and explore the technological
realm in order to envision and create it in precisely the way he did. Guess
that's all I'm saying. If I miss opportunities to lead, nudge, or follow
*any* student into the technological realm--miss *any* opportunity to support
and celebrate (and grow from) their achievements and discoveries there--then I
don't think I can rightly call myself an online teacher, or any kind of
teacher, at all. So yes, yes and thanks again to all who said, in both the f2f
and online versions of Town Hall 2, that our students include *all* of our
diverse colleagues, K-Grad School, and that our teachers must always include
our students, no matter their ages, ranks, colors, or credentials. Not a bad
town to hang out in at all, especially since the meeting hall is without
borders.
Oops. Too long. Cin's fault--she asked! 'Sides, my keyboard missed me.
Kathy at C.O.D.
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