ABBA and Billy Idol and ed tech!

Two musical references from the 80's for this one:

First one is in response to some planning we're doing on a retreat topic for our faculty next fall. I'd love feedback.
Remember the old ABBA song: Knowing Me, Knowing You?

Knowing You or, Who are our students?
How about an "tour" of our kids lives--their anxieties, their relationships, their fears, their achievements. . . and how the online world plays a part in this.

Who are we?
Guiding Question--Are we modeling what we say that we want the students to be: independent life-long learners? How can we better support faculty as independent learners? Could we complete some kind of "teacher as learner" instrument prior to the retreat? I don't know of one, but I bet we can find one or modify something existing to work. Then organize a day of self-reflection and assessment helping each of us pinpoint areas in which we want to grow (professional and personal) and designing a plan for doing so. This could include small/large group work, individual time, partner meetings, etc.

Second reference: Billy Idol, Dancing with Myself
I've started another attempt at blogging. Of course, until someone reads it, it is just a journal, and I've never been good at those. So, here's a commercial plug for myself. Some thoughts I've been ruminating on:

What is 21st Century Literacy? First, and foremost, it is a literacy. Not a skill. When we teach skills, and I know we have to, that is only the beginning. When we teach them literacy, we've set them free. 21st Century Literacy?

Think. Communicate your thoughts. Collaborate with other thinkers. Think some more. Create. None of these are technology skills. But technology makes all of them happen far faster, better, and deeper than ever before.

My latest frustration is that I can't seem to answer the simplest of questions "what do you do?" I am involved with the instructional use of technology to help students learn and teachers teach. Seems straightforward. My non-technology education background includes special education, middle school, science, language arts and reading. It's not as mixed up as it seems, most of those happened in conjunction with one another. My technology education background evolved over the last 15 years as it did for many of us who started with 10 Macs in a makeshift lab in a converted storage closet. So maybe that is my point. If I'm a tech integrationist, then aren't I also a teacher of reading and writing? A teacher of problem-solving? A teacher who uses differentiation? Of course. But recognition of dual functionality is hard to communicate in academia and, apparently, hard to budget. How do I explain the value I add to an educational program? Why is the already excellent classroom in which I've been immersed this year better now than it was before I arrived?