Johanna Mittman's Page

Due to my age, I'm a digital immigrant. In high school we had the monochromatic screens and the nifty Apple 2e machines. I learned basic programming and my first nine weeks of typing class was spent on a manual typewriter. Yes, a manual typewriter. "Digitalese" is my second language; I'm considered one of the tech people in my building and department.
The Warlick article intrigues but also annoys. The ability to share tags with colleagues so that content can be supported in multiple areas is important for students to make connections and solidify learning. I get annoyed as I want to know how you get a staff to that point. I was asked to be a laptop 1-1 teacher for chemistry a couple of years ago. My training consisited of 3 hrs of the tricks of Class Server and SynchronEyes. SynchronEyes worked for 2 weeks and the training on Class Server did not aid in how to mesh thinking skills with the technology. I spent many hours trying to figure things out for one class. In the process, I found some interesting websites (PhET from Boulder is wonderful as is MOLO for biology). By the 3rd quarter many students said I was the only one still using Class Server regularly--most of the others had quit. So I really want to know how long and painful it would be to train the staff in his WEb 2.0 School.
I had seen the Vision of Students video last year as someone had sent me the link. I realize that what the video shows about writing and reading is true; getting students to consolidate information from different sources, discriminate between sources to determine validity, and create content that shows learning has occurred is going to be a prized skill. I feel that all teachers will need to teach those skills seamlessly in their content field for kids to be engaged learners. I read a book last summer that said content should be used as a way to teach skills rather than content being the goal. That would require a serious paradigm shift for some in our building, including me. I tend to think of reading, writing and math as tools to aid the science I teach.