I was signing into the conference over coffee this morning when a funny thing happened. I hit some key and landed outside of the conference on a Google site. There I saw a hotlink designated by a phrase that I had not heard of ( not that I know everything). Digital Chalkie was the phrase. Ah! I thought, CJ Bracken missed a least one free resource in his Panel presentation last week. I clicked the hotlink and found myself in an Australian, really an Oceania website, dedicated to this thing, Thinking I had found out about a new type of digital coloring stick, I went on. I could see I was on an educational web page, but this digital chalkie was never described, but revealed a synonym, technology chalkie. I became so curious that I could not come back to the Conference until I found out what a digital chalkie is. I launched another search and found my answer. A digital (or technology) chalkie is an online teacher – chalkie being “an affectionately defunct Aussie term for teachers.” So now that I know the term refers to people like those of us “attending” the conference, I realize just how important we teachers are. Australia and the surrounding islands even coined a name for us.
My lesson was not over, however. Did you know that "e-mail is for old people"? That is what one of the web logs, or blogs, linked on the site pointed out (http://www.digitalchalkie.com/). Now here is the point of my madness. “E-mail,” the blogger went on to say, “is for old people,” ( probably, a metaphor for anacronistic) with the innovative ways we are now capable of interacting with students and other professionals. And if I were not cognizant of this before, this free virtual conference is letting me know it by covering a broad spectrum of teaching and learning devices and approaches for facilitating thinking processes that lead students to know how it is that they know.
My eyes caught another connection while I was still wandering (sort of like the students are doing when they get all glassy-eyed or look down on the desks or don’t come into the class discussion board for days). Somehow, I felt compelled to visit the vendors before getting back to the discussion boards. The Blackboard site gave me information on its Building Blocks, its built-in wiki plug-in. The more I use this Blackboard template, the more respect I have for it. But, enough with my tardiness - the discussion boards are waiting.
My lesson was not over, however. Did you know that "e-mail is for old people"? That is what one of the web logs, or blogs, linked on the site pointed out (http://www.digitalchalkie.com/). Now here is the point of my madness. “E-mail,” the blogger went on to say, “is for old people,” ( probably, a metaphor for anacronistic) with the innovative ways we are now capable of interacting with students and other professionals. And if I were not cognizant of this before, this free virtual conference is letting me know it by covering a broad spectrum of teaching and learning devices and approaches for facilitating thinking processes that lead students to know how it is that they know.
My eyes caught another connection while I was still wandering (sort of like the students are doing when they get all glassy-eyed or look down on the desks or don’t come into the class discussion board for days). Somehow, I felt compelled to visit the vendors before getting back to the discussion boards. The Blackboard site gave me information on its Building Blocks, its built-in wiki plug-in. The more I use this Blackboard template, the more respect I have for it. But, enough with my tardiness - the discussion boards are waiting.
I like the name - digital chalkie. Now when I ask students about their instructors I can ask if the instructor was a digital chalkie (meaning was this an instructor for an online course).
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the attention span of students (and the rest of us) is shortening; there is so much online to distract you. It is so easy to find yourself many click away from where you started (explains how I started about reading more about blogs and ended up at a Macy's sale -smiles)
MM