(This entry was originally posted on the Red Cedar Writing Project Blog)
Getting to San Antonio was an ordeal. I wrote about it in a previous entry (below) so check it out. You know how they say that when you struggle to get something or go somewhere, it means more to you? Well, I’ve felt that way. Just being present here in San Antonio seems like a gift.
Having our session go so well was a gift, too. Troy, Dawn, and I presented with Paul Allison and Chris Sloan on “Revising the Writing Process: New Literacies in the English Classroom.” Presenting is always nerve-racking, but I thought it went particulary smoothly. Creating the Power Point and wiki was about as collaborative a project as I have ever participated in: we all contributed to a Power Point Google document over the course of a couple weeks, talked once on Skype, created the wiki and added links to it, refined it last night, added to the wiki during the session, and passed out bookmarks with the wiki address as our only handout. A bunch of streams flowing into a river of experience with students and technology. It was truly an honor to be one of those streams. I learned a bunch from the process and from the other presentors. A big “Thank You” to each of them, especially Troy for his suggestion to do it in the first place.
Today, I participated in two NWP sessions. One had free wireless internet available (due to being on the 3rd floor where the Army was paying for it in another workshop down the hall) and one didn’t have wireless.
During the one with wireless I was active: I took notes in Word, asked questions, watched video clips and… checked the websites they referred to (like Voicethread, celtx.com free software for turning screenplays into movies, interversity.org which includes a list serve of English teachers), began this blog post, updated our wiki site from our presentation, checked my email, and sent an email that needed sending to my tech director in East Lansing. I was still attentive, read the handouts, etc., but I feel more alive with my computer and its wireless limb attached.
The session without wireless was okay. We had group discussions at our tables, listened to some student interviews about their wiki use, and learned how wikis can be used effectively in classrooms. I’ll be writing more about both of them sometime soon. I was struck, however, by the difference having the wireless availability had on me. I almost dozed off in the session without it and I’m still writing (in the same room as the session) right now and the session has been over for 15 minutes.
This morning at NCTE, Marc Prensky talked about the differences between being a digital native and a digital immigrant. I find myself in between the two. Sometimes I feel like a foreigner in this digital land and yet I still choose the computer over my journal 8 times out of 10. Yes, I still print out a few of my emails, but only when it’s really necessary. Yes, I still like to see an atlas, but I prefer mapquest in a pinch. Yes, I grew up with typewriters, but somewhere in college I jumped aboard the computer cruise and I’ve enjoyed most every moment (relatively speaking, of course).
They say you should learn something new everyday.
If you learn a bunch of stuff on one day, can you take a day off?
Just kidding.