Alan November

Educators listening to Alan November October 19th at the Guilford Surrey Conference centre could hardly contain their enthusiasm during and after the highly engaging presentation. Not being a “techie”, but having a background in math, I think I am safe to say that this was no regular talk about technology. Alan exceeded expectations in every category. Prior to Thursday I thought I knew about things like RRS. After all, it’s our school code of conduct: Respect, Responsibility, Safety. Alan enlightened us all to the more universal and technical meaning for RSS and its place in our work with the web. We were also told that one day we would all have a blog. As much as we felt disbelief at this statement, Alan reported that there was a time when he would tell audiences that one day they would have e-mail. People balked, “Why would anyone need e-mail?”. The day was filled with new discoveries, bogus websites and much, much, more. Have you ever heard of the endangered tree octopus? Try googling octopus, or better yet, google “miserable failure”. You really need to check out Alan November’s website.

I left the day feeling a tremendous surge of energy and responsibility to ensure our students are technically literate. In order for students to function in modern society they need to know whose version of the truth they are reading. In other words, who is the author of the site? Alan made the point that we need to be just as literate with the internet as we are with books. We are good at paper. We need to be just as good with the net. Student need to know the “grammar” of the internet and be able to validate the information they discover. In order to survive in the networked global economy our students must have the opportunity to be proficient with technology.

Alan took us on a journey of discovery and we could hardly keep up with all of the notes we just had to write down. Not only can we teach the grammar of the net, but also Alan gave examples of how to use technology to make learning and assessment more relevant . His example of teaching globalization by having students listen to the live interview, found on the net, from the man in Chicago who lost his job due to globalization was very good. It became absolutely amazing when he was able to find the interview of the man in China who now had that new job. He went on to ask what we thought was a more effective way to teach globalization. Read an article on globalization and do a quiz, or his example from the net? Alan continued to provide tangible examples of using the internet to enhance learning. I am sure many of us in BC watched the eaglettes hatching this summer on the news. Setting up a web cam can make events like this a reality in any classroom. One of our teachers said it best. You know it’s a good workshop when you can take something usable away from it. Well, she had to number the list of all the good things she took away, including her very own blog.

It is undoubtedly clear why Alan was named one of the nation’s fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Classroom Computer Learning Magazine. Many people claimed they had no idea how much they didn’t know. Alan’s line of people waiting for their own free blog at the end of the day was a tribute to the fact that he is an outstanding presenter with a talent for making technology accessible to all.

Carolynn Schmor