Seth Godin and Connections to Education.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/01/thats-a-special.html

Seth Godin has a great blog.  I think he would say it is about marketing.  I think it is about business, life and leadership on the internet.  It is worth a look for educators as well.

I think schools do need to get more of their content online.

In the next couple of years, the office for working America is going to be where ever you want it to be.  That is actually happening now.  If the office is someplace warm and sunny next week (I am writing this between cold snaps in Minnesota.) don't you think people are going to want to take their kids?  These families are going to want to keep up with school AND go.  Teachers, you have all seen the "requests for assignments" for this very reason.  

Have you seen the harried parent coming to school to get the worksheet that got forgotten in the locker?  Wouldn't it be easier to go online to get the same sheet?  Why does it have to be on paper?

There are tools that are more than ready to make this happen. Moodle, SmartMusic, Blackboard, some grade books, Google Docs, student-server access can all be used to make this change work. 

We can make this work.  But like Seth says in blog post, there is no clear cut way to do this, "the transition isn't structured in an orderly way."  Educators need to be the leaders in this situation or education may get lost in the confusion.

He also warns that this "isn't the old business, just with computers."  Same for education.  Not the same old school.  I think these changes will be a good.  Not the same, better.

So what do you bring home?

I was packing my lunch and coffee this morning. I used to be lunch, coffee and a bunch of homework. I am amazed at how much work I am not carrying around anymore. There used to be a bunch of worksheets, CDs (before that tapes), maybe a portable player of some kind. It's not that I am skipping the homework. (I was busy after supper.) It's all the work I need is now online. If you are a music teacher take a look at SmartMusic Impact. Impact's a great place to store those audio files AND they are all organized by student. If you have one of those paper and pencil classes, have you looked at Moodle, WebCT or Blackboard? If you don't have access to those course management tools, maybe you should take a look at Google Docs. Lose the briefcase. It may change the way your students learn as well. I found an interesting link about Moodle vs Blackboard: http://www.humboldt.edu/~jdv1/moodle/all.htm The scatter graphs show wonderful student progress, but the comments about being involved in the learning may be the key to why these programs are a hit with learners. And when was the last time you heard about a dog eating a server? You may actually get the student work back!

Differentiation

In education good ideas are too often passed-over because they will be too much for the over worked teacher.

One of those good ideas that may suffer that fate is  Differentiated Curriculum.  Differentiation is all about giving students what they need to grow.  This is typically done by having students work on differing assignments.

The typical complaint about having students working on different projects about the same concept is a management issue.  How can I manage all that work when I hand out several different projects?  Take a look at your tools.  

Do you have a class room management system at your school?  Blackboard and Moodle are two common ones that are worth a look.  With easy computer access and one of these programs available to you and your students, you have the problem solved.  With some clever grouping you can unleash your inner differentiation master.

SmartMusic will help with a music teacher's differentiation needs as well.  Using Impact you can very quickly send an assignment to everyone, a small group or even an individual.  These features are not surprising, because music teachers have been dealing with differentiated classrooms since the invention of the ensemble.  For instance, your flute players need to know very different things from the tuba section! 

Giving students what they need to grow is why we got into education in the first place.  Take a look at your tools.