I’m going off blog for a couple of weeks. I need a break, and I have many things to think about…my blogging future included. 2005 has been a great year. Here’s hoping 2006 will be even better. Best wishes for safe, healthy and happy holidays, and my sincere thanks for your continued interest and support.

Will

(Photo courtesy Todd Klassy and Creative Commons)
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I just want to send my heartfelt congratulations to Stephen Downes for being chosen the best individual edblogger in this year’s EdBlogger Awards. The service he provides to this community day in day out is not only remarkable, it’s inspiring. The quality of the content that he finds and his succinct way of providing context has helped me learn so very much, and it’s an honor to have been nominated next to him. Congratulations too to all of the other winners; it’s nice to see this community growing and evolving. 2006 should be a fantastic year!

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Darren Kuroptawa has put together an extremely engaging in-service on teaching with blogs, RSS and the like that should serve as a model to all of us. It’s all about building a learning ecology in the classroom that supports the small pieces model, where students become self-directed learners using a variety of tools and techniques.

An ecology is an environment that fosters and supports the creation of communities … A learning ecology is an environment that is consistent with (not antagonistic to) how learners learn … The Instructor plays the role of gardener.

That is such a great metaphor, certainly one that fits what I think of when I look at the way Darren and Anne and Barbara and Clarence and Konrad and many others are employing these tools in our classrooms.

Darren’s workshop speaks to the unlearning that we have to do, because almost everything he asks of the participants challenges their preconceived notions of teaching and classroom structure.