Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wordle from Week 4 Graffiti Wiki Wall of Quotations
Wordle from Week 3 Graffiti Wiki Wall of Quotations
Wordle from Week 2 Graffiti Wiki Wall of Quotations
Wordle from Week 1 Graffiti Wiki Wall of Quotations
I have issues using my real name or initials with blogs. Any suggestions? I am also being automatically logged in as bwright when I created this blog account a year ago. Will you know who I am if I continue to use bwright?
ReplyDeleteTransformational connections...creating new connections whether it be student to student or teacher to student. These new connections can be done using blogs, wikki's, google docs, podcasts, voice thread (streaming video) and much more. My 8th grade students are using google docs to figure out our schools technology culture. Students are able to collaborate, post information, and edit information on the project 24/7.
ReplyDeleteWeb 2.0 tools enable education to come full circle. It's great for students, teachers, and parents to be able to interact so eaisly and safely. I use a really simple web site to do podcasts - it's called G-Cast. Very easy to do over the phone! My students love it. I'm anxious to put up some vodcasts, but had difficulty with that. Found a new site called Intellivision - just need a bit more time to explore! The more opportunities we have for connections in education, the better!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what Transformational Connections refers to.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am anxious to see if Wikis are just things that work like Wikipedia and to find out how a Blog is different from a message board.
Oh, and I got into the habit of always using my real name years ago. Keeps me from saying anything stupid :)
ReplyDeleteI am with Bruce. Understand a bit about Blogs and Wiki's but never heard the term Transformational Connections before this course. Looking forward to it though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, our Language Arts teachers at our school are begging for inservices on blogs and podcasts which is part of the reason I am taking the course. I do the Tech Professional Development for them this year and this will be a big step.
ReplyDeleteI think the proliferation of video conferencing technologies could be considered a transformational connection for the deaf. Videophones, webcams, vlogs(video logs) enable communication access in their own language on par with what most people have had for a long time.
ReplyDeleteWell.. I'm going to take a wild stab at it. Transformational would mean to make a meaningful change, or transform. My assumption would be that transformational connections in relationship with this class are connections made globally that change or have a meaningful insite on learning. One example I can think of this is when I taught my students how to properly use diigo to share bookmarks. Previously they had only shared entertainment bookmarks via email or chat. After showing them how they can use diigo to help them research, and to carry on discussions with people in the IT field, I couldn't hold them back. They are now watching blogs and discussing, and I feel truly learning in context more than what I could teach them in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think transformational connections means to make changes in how we connect or communicate with people. The readings and our history shows and suggests communications are ever changing.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am know as gigi (my nickname) but I am registered as Jennifer in your class, Susan.
ReplyDeleteTransformational connections. Hmmm...this strikes me as a fancy way of saying that the lightbulb turned on for someone. I've seen it happen once via technology in my class: a student who wrote brilliant papers, but never spoke in English class, absolutely blossomed in a chat room I created for the kids to discuss our latest novel. Several students made comments to her in class such as "Grace, you need to speak up - you have great ideas!" and the class started to turn to her for ideas and answers when they got stuck. The confidence she had on paper/writing in the chat room soon transferred to our classroom.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard the term transformational connections before so I began clueless. Considering the course this is, I would venture to guess it means using blogs and wiki's to connect with others using the internet.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to dissect the word "transformational" - it would mean to change the order of the way we do things in the classroom. Make the connection between the student and the lesson.
ReplyDeleteGuys - my google account is registered under msgammy - am registered in the class as Lasure. Susannah - do I need to go in and change this or create a new account? No problem if I do! Don't want to confuse anyone :)
ReplyDeleteTransformational sounds like... "change" , so I would say it is changing the way students/people connect or communicate. Blogs and wikis would be one way to connect?
ReplyDeleteBTW - I googled the phrase and a definition is not available , yet...
I wasn't sure what my Google name was - Now I know it is BHS COMPAPPS - for Sue Ann Miller
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to learn about blogs by actually posting a comment. My guess is that transformational connections are basically taking traditional forms of communication such as writing letters, journals, calling on the phone and using them in new ways with current technology such as blogs, chat rooms, texting messages, etc.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a few comments about some of the names for blog postings. I'm not worried. I will figure out who has posted what. If you don't want to use your name, no problem. On a related side not, one of the things you have to do after you finish this blog posting is go back into the course and click below slide 3 on this link: View/Complete Assignment: Course Blog Assignment: Transformational Connections, then email me that you have posted. If you blink, you may miss that. Seems redundant, I'm sure, but here's why you do this...because we are posting outside the BB environment, my gradebook is not "triggered" when you complete this assignment. By coming back into the BB environment and clicking on this link and sending me a note that you've posted, the gradebook will be "triggered" and I can more easily manage your grades.
ReplyDeleteNow...onto your comments so far. They are fabulous! Some of your say you're "clueless" (don't agree, btw) about the phrase "Transformational Connections." There is no right or wrong answer....everything everyone has written has been perfecto. I suppose this first entry was about planting the seed about how blogs and wikis and other web 2.0 tools can be tools that create unique virtual connections that have the ability to change and widen the "field" of the classroom.
Transformational connections, because of the robust nature of electronic communications, allow us not only to change the ways in which we teach and learn but also to change the ways in which we think. The myriad nodes and users of the web make it possible to see the world and ourselves differently
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite cartoons from The New Yorker nearly a decade ago portrays two dogs on an office computer with the caption: "On the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog." While there are certainly pernicious instances in which people acted maliciously, there are also many opportunities to create a new persona and to develop connections or relationships that serve them well in professional and personal lives. Young gifted students can discover intellectual equals when there is a dearth such in their own schools.
Transformational connections power the internet
A Transformational Connection is an interesting way to view the technological world. I completely agree with the fact that transform means to change. The fact that needs to be addressed, however, is that we as educators are the ones who need to transform. Transform our way of thinking and interacting with our students in order to make logical and relative connections to our students' lives. Our students already live in the transformed world. Changes have been great in the educational realm over the past FEW years. We need to make the effort to adapt to what our students need.
ReplyDeleteNot familiar with this term, but I know what each word means. Here's a shot:
ReplyDeleteTransformational connections change the way students think about school and learning in general. They set new directions and provide a sense of meaning and purpose.
I think the best way to illustrate this is by including two stories from a post a made for another e-tech class. I apologize for the length of the post, and to those of you with whom I am taking Web 2.0 Gardener, who've already read this:
- A girl, as a sophomore and a B/C student, wrote a three-page paper for her Language Arts class on the topic of bullying after reading the book, Please Stop Laughing At Me. Impressed by the girl's insight and the improvement the paper was over anything she had ever done, her teacher asked for her permission to post it on the class' blog. Over the course of the next several months, hundreds of people from all over the world commented on the blog entry about the paper. She heard from bullying victims who had their story to tell, bullies who were moved to realize what they were doing to their victims, psychologists, social-workers and other experts in the field who gave their input on the matter or , and ultimately, the author herself, Jodee Blanco who gave her insight on the book that no one could.
Months turned into years, and each time the girl received a new comment, she would think about how that input either fit into or challenged her ideas in the paper. By the time she was a senior, she had revised it dozens of times into 32 pages. Now, how many times have you ever heard of a student still revising a paper two years after receiving the grade?
- A fifth-grade class was doing a class project over a particular village in Africa. The kids posted their research and insights on their class blog. It received so many hits from the kids in the class, that when a Google search was done on this particular village, the class' blog was #2. A person in that village, at an internet cafe was browsing around and decided to Google his village where he came across the 5th grade class' site. He e-mailed the class and said, "Hey, I'm from that village. What would you like to know?"
Now that's learning. And that's information that a classroom teacher could never give to the kids on their own.
I know I have a lot to learn!
ReplyDeleteThe root word transform means a change which will make a major impact. Therefore, transformation connections must have something to do with changing the way people connect and communicate with one another - meaning utilizing new technologies. It would be engaging to all parties and give them the ability to connect with people all over the world at the touch of their finger.
ReplyDeleteI think transformational connections are incorporating technology and technological concepts to your (digital immigrant) classroom in order to communicate with your digital native students. My first experience with incorporating transformational connection into my classroom was through a grant with Ohio University and the Environmental Protection Agency. My students were to develop educational games using a gaming program called “Second Life”. One group developed a biome game where avatars walked through the museum and viewed the contents. The avatars would items which would reveal information concerning that biome. Another group developed a water pollution game. They develop a farming community where avatars walk through in witness pollution stemming from the farming industry. Avatars could touch items that would reveal ways to prevent pollution. Another group develops a Spanish House. Avatars would walk through the house and touch items which would reveal the spanish word for that item. My students and I also use power point, speak capabilities, and audio capabilities to prepare presentations.
ReplyDeleteI think Transformation Connections mean different things to different people. I see pros and cons in the action of setting up blog names and creating a different persona for the interfacing/communication with the web at large. For different reasons: insecurity, lack of security, precautions, and then darker reasons such as stalking, lurking, etc. I think most everyone agrees that if it is used in the right manner, it is a great teaching/learning tool...creating blogs/names, sharing info...in its purest sense, everything's tips up. But it can also be used to destroy, libel, defame, etc. So unless a certain level of protocol and social niceties are being followed by all involved, it could be dangerous. Instead of fearing"Big Brother" becoming one with him. I dunno. I teach web/graphic design and want to be sure I educate my students in a web.2 environment, but I also want to teach the right ways to go about it.
ReplyDeleteDear Robert,
ReplyDeleteI completely respect and agree with what you have said. There is a shadow and a light side to these tools. I believe, as you do, that students and educators need more knowledge about how to be "information literate." In fact, one book you might check out is Alan November's new "Web Literacy for Educators." (http://www.novemberlearning.com). I appreciate your comments. They are important. I will also post this on the blog.
Susannah
I was not familiar with the terminology "tranformational connections", so I googled.
ReplyDeleteat http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/blog/?p=218 I found this quote. "transformational leadership is something entirely different: it changes people and situations, it sets new directions and provides a sense of meaning and purpose."
From this lead, I would assume that things that are done in class, connections made by students and teachers alike that change people would make a good definition. This class is about wiki's and blogs. Those avenues produce connections to people and resources that are not normally available to the classroom that exist solely within their four walls.
Thanks for Googling that, Gary. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWell, like many of you have already stated, "What is this term?". But, like others have noted it is most likely something dealing with change in the classroom or how we endeavor to connect/engage students with the content being presented in new and fascinating ways. I believe by using blogs/wikis/podcasts/vodcasts (especially love those) we can allow students to find their learning style and give them content in the way that would be most meaningful to them. Kind of goes along with an exogenic way of teaching, I think.
ReplyDelete