We can't blame lack of time anymore - we have a responsibility to modernize education

I don’t know how it is for you who aren’t living in Sweden, but the biggest issue me and my colleagues have to face is something that we could think we had a never ending source of - time. We simply don’t have it or way too little of it. Is there anything to do about it, then? Well, it depends, but not as long as you as a teacher with ideas on how to modernize your teaching don’t get any positive feedback or support from you boss or colleagues. 
It is rather easy to me to find that precious time, however. I am single with no family which basically means that I have all my evenings and weekends to spend hunting down new tools, creating new lessons and educating myself in modern teaching. But what about the rest of us?

One could easily think that becoming that extraordinary teacher who always have new things going on and always surprise the students with new high-tech solutions, are good at what they are doing. Sure they are, they are brilliant, but it’s not enough. They also need a good deal of dedication and support. Dedication comes from the belief that what they, or we, are doing is something good. It is something good for our students and for our profession. If we didn’t think that we would probably not be doing what we are doing. But dedication would be nothing without support and positive feedback. We need to hear it. We need our students to tell us if they appreciate what we are doing or at least, show us that they do. We need our principals and colleagues to acknowledge our work - if they don’t we would lose our dedication. In the year of 2009 going on 2010, there is no reason for them not to acknowledge our work. If they do, they are hopelessly conservative and ignorant as educators and this worries me, to be honest, simply because I feel rather alone.

It isn’t a question about interest and hobby anymore. Sure I am a bit geeky and sure I take great interest in the Internet, but it has grown into something much more serious. It has become such an important part of education that we can’t hide from it anymore. Scientists and reports show us daily that today’s children are growing up in a high-tech environment and the education system  must be a part of it. It is as easy as that. We can’t blame it on lack of time or lack of knowledge. It is our duty to speed up and keep pace with development in order to succeed with out hard mission as teachers. Don’t have time time? Demand it. Don’t have the knowledge? Demand it.

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Varför Posterous är det bästa bloggverktyget (i skolan)

Om du läser detta på min blogg Swedteacher, så har du redan hittat till Posterous. Du tycker också att bloggen ser ren och fin ut, lätt att läsa och den är snygg i all sin enkelhet. Så är det att blogga med Posterous - enkelt, snyggt och smidigt. Det som gör att Posterous lämpar sig bäst för skolbloggar är möjligheten att maila dina texter och det är också det som Posterous främst handlar om. Skriv din text i ditt mail, rubriken skriver du i ämnesraden, skicka med bilder eller videoklipp, länka till bilder eller videoklipp och skicka iväg. Posterous fixar resten. Bifogar du länkar till bilder och video visas de som just bilder eller video på din blogg. Skickar du med mp3- eller videofiler, så publiceras de med inbyggd mediaspelare i flash. Kan inte bli lättare än så.

Med de flesta andra bloggverktyg måste du först logga in, leta dig fram till “New post”, skriva, formatera, ladda upp bilder hitan och ditan och det säger sig självt att det tar en massa onödig tid och det är ganska komplicerat för barn och ungdomar att lära sig hur det fungerar. Med Posterous slipper du allt det där. Som administratör av bloggen kan du lägga till bloggare genom att registrera deras epostadresser. Sen är allt de behöver göra skiva sina texter i sina epostklienter och skicka iväg. Posterous är enkelt att använda och det finns inte heller allt för många redigeringsmöjligheter vad gäller utseende och du kan inte heller lägga till eller hacka kod (mer än viss enkel html och css). Nyligen släpptes möjligheten att välja teman men än så länge är de få. Men allt det här stöttas upp av filosofin om att det helt enkelt ska vara enkelt. Vill du kunna skapa större portaler med sidor och undersidor är Posterous ingenting för dig. Men för enkel och snabb publicering är det det bästa alternativet just nu. För oss som är lite mer web 2.0-iga kan Posterous autoposta till en mängd andra tjänster som Twitter och Facebook.

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Varie skola beöver en så här:

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IMteacher.eu - inhabiting the virtual world

My recent post on English classes in Second Life made me a bit curious. IMteacher.eu is one of those companies that uses the Internet fully and sees the potential the new technology and virtual worlds have to offer. I find this really interesting. If you are a teacher you can sign up and start making some money yourself. If you want to learn languages and other subjects, just sign up. With a mic, webcam and Second Life installed on your computer the possibilities are unlimited. 

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Second Life - What an English class can look like

I stumbled upon an event recently of an English class in Second Life. A class that costs money (or Linden $) to attend. 

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Money-making in a second life

A great documentary on real money business in Second Life:

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