Category: Curious David

Building Bridges Kindergarten through 99+

My mother was a first-grade teacher; my sister taught in high school and college. My father-in-law and brother-in-law were high school principals; my sister-in-law taught in elementary schools. I have a long-standing interest in building and crossing bridges that connect teachers and learners of different ages and from different cultures. I continue to discover and marvel l at internet tools that facilitate “learning without borders.”

While I blogged for a year at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online as “Curious David” one of my most valued colleagues in learning was a middle school teacher (thank you Pamela, for all you taught me). I find considerable value in monitoring the blogs of Richard Byrne, Steve Johnson, Larry Ferlazzo, and of course the ubiquitous Jane Hart.

Recently I have begun investigating the capabilities of epals and edmodo as tools I might use to reduce barriers between learners from different cultures (including academic cultures) and different ages.  The payback has been immediate both in developing of new virtual friends and of being impressed at the amazing kinds of learning experiences our children are being introduced to.  I am becoming quite impressed by the teaching/learning capabilities of learnist.

What bridge-building tools have you discovered that can promote collaborative leaning across cultures—and across ages Kindergarten through 99+?

Musings about Virtual European Cultural Immersion Experiences

Sunday I had a wonderful Skype session with my nephew, Andrew Bowman and his family now living in Switzerland. The video was crisp — he was using an IPad mini and I was sitting by my MacBook Pro. The sound was clear and the technological glitches were minor. I still need, however,  a few more practice sessions with some old and new international friends (Thank you, Irma Milevičiūtė, for your patience, kindness, ideas, and assistance as I begin learning through Epals about the wonderful work you do in beautiful Lithuania!).  I still need to master how to record Skype sessions and to practice embedding such conversations into blogging software such as WordPress. I’m also eager to compare Skype with other Skype-like video conferencing tools (e.g. Google plus hangouts and Oovoo).

I’ve rediscovered Curtis J. Bonk’s book The world is open and I am pondering to what degree I want to infuse my courses with global awareness and connections before I retire—or afterwards!

Here are some incipient thoughts I am exploring.  I welcome  YOUR thoughts and reactions—especially those of you living in other countries.

  • I see a need and many opportunities to increase global awareness of my students  through the use of media such as BBC News, Google News, and Newsvine. I was thrilled last week when one of my student research collaborators in the “Pioneering a Virtual European Cultural Immersion Course” project  Phoumany Phouybanhdyt alerted me to some of Carroll University library’s global news resources  she had learned about in  her  World Politics class.
  • I’m very much interested in investigating how I might become a member of (or associated with) Etwinning.  My thanks to student research collaborator Catrina Duncan who first brought this potential resource to my attention and to my new and old European friends Irma Milevičiūtė and Reidar Ommundsen who pointed me in some directions on how to join.
  • I’m debating the value of incorporating Kiva or some such international charity/ service component into the classroom to reinforce global compassion.
  • To what degree should I explore global views of religion, spirituality, and being?
  • How essential (and what degree of mastery is essential ) for our students to learn  non English languages? What should be the role of tools such as Google Translate and  Livemocha?  I am always humbled at the mastery of English of my international friends and embarrassed at my own failure to master the basic elements of their beautiful languages.
  • Does it make sense to incorporate into my courses, where appropriate,  cultural universals such as music, cusine, sports, and literature?   So much to think about, but I enjoy thinking—and I welcome your thoughts in particular about what are ideally the key elements for an international cultural immersion experience. Looking forward to your comments.

Curious Reflections (Or the Incipient Rebirth of Curious David)

It’s amusing and edifying to revisit the last “Curious David” blog I wrote for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JSOnline) before they discontinued (terminated) their educational community bloggers.

Pioneering Web 2.0 Learning Tools
By David Simpson
Monday, Sep 1 2008, 09:32 AM
I’m nervous and excited. Time to take
off my invisibility cloak. Tomorrow
(Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 8:00 a.m.)
I meet in person for the first time with my
20 first-year students. What an immense
responsibility to be their first professor!
We’re going to explore 21rst
century learning tools such as blogs,
wikis, podcasts, social networks, virtual
worlds, and Youtube.? The idea for this
course emerged from my
experiences writing this Curious David
blog column. Last year’s opportunity to
write for JSonline was transformative for
me as I learned from elementary and
secondary school teachers, high school
students, virtual school advocates, retired
faculty and readers about innovations,
challenges and successes they faced
promoting learning.

In this first-year seminar we shall focus
on some of the 25 free learning tools
described by educator Jane Hart. As we
examine these learning tools we hope to
answer questions such as these:
1. To what degree can these web
tools truly enhance student learning?
2. To what degree are they just
cool tools?
3. Could they be used to develop
critical thinking?
4. Do they improve or degrade
communication skills?
5. Might they be applied to fostering
cross-cultural or international
understanding?
6. Might they strengthen or weaken
writing skills?
7. What are their weaknesses or
dangers? Should they complement or
replace 20th century learning
skills/tools?
8. How can one evaluate their
effectiveness?
We shall read two books—Little Brother,
a work of fiction (maybe it is fiction) and a
work of nonfiction Dispatches from Blogistan. My
intent is to assist students in the transition
from high school to college—and to
investigate Web 2.0 learning tools which
might be useful across classes and in the
workplace. I want to involve them in
educational experiences that will develop
and enhance abilities in reading, writing,
reflecting, presenting, thinking, and
producing. Writing exercises will include
papers, journals, blogs/wikis, and exams.
Presentations will be both formal and
informal; individual and in small groups.
Collaboration will be both with fellow
students and with me
I welcome reader feedback about
this course. I’d gladly share a course
syllabus in .pdf format which has many
hypertext links. (Indeed, I’d welcome
reassurance that I still have readers after a
two month hiatus!).
Still Curious,
David
email me at dsimpson@carrollu.edu.

Tomorrow’s final exam may give me some insight into what the students have learned. Interestingly, I received an email today from someone in Great Britain interested in the course.
It is my intent to begin (renew) serious writing in a blog format starting in January. I’ll most likely use Type Pad.

I’ve learned so much—and have so much to learn.

Getting Started

Curious how each piece of blog authoring software takes getting used to. I’m looking for something as close to what I used when I was writing the “Curious David” column JSOnline yet will allow me to share the many things I now know are possible.

I’m writing this on my Mac। I hope to make this blog useful and of interest especially to my students and former students.