Activity 5.2 Blog Post Resources

So my Integration of Information & Computer Technology (IICT) course for York U wants me to make an entry here about and educational blogger that floats my proverbial boat. But I'm feeling contrary and I'm not going to do (quite) that. I want to point to a couple of other non-blog internet sources I use that fulfill some of the same functions as blog.

I go to reddit.com every day. It's usually the place I go to first on the Internet. Is avid the right word to describe my use? On the most superficial level, Reddit is a link aggregator. Users (redditors) post links to things they find. The community (other redditors) can vote those links up or down. The most popular links end up on the front page.

That's reddit on a superficial level. Reddit is also a collection of communities organized as subreddits each of which has it's own focus some of which are moderated and many, many of which are not. Redditors can subscribe to subreddits and its posts will end up on their main feed. Some of the subreddits are pretty rough and tumble. Some are completely offensive. Some are brilliant.

There are lots of education related subreddits or ones that support my teaching or computer interests.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/
https://www.reddit.com/r/edtech/
https://www.reddit.com/r/matheducation/
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/
https://www.reddit.com/r/readablecode/
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/
https://www.reddit.com/r/teachingresources/
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/

2-LB2: Activity 5.2 - Meeting the needs of all learners

Catching up on some overdue work for my online course in Integration Of Information & Computer Technology.

Reach Every Student: Through differentiated instruction

Methods of Differentiation in the Classroom

Integrating Aboriginal Teaching And Values Into The Classroom

Meeting on the digital commons

It's worth expanding on my previous post and exploring a bit more the notion of Open Source and it's relation to this blog and to teaching.

OpenSource.com describes Open Source in a document called The Open Source Way. It organizes the Open Source Way around five different principles.

The first is Open Exchange. This is the idea that we all learn more when the exchange of information is open. The free exchange of current ideas is critical to the creation of new ideas.

The second is Participation. This is the idea that freedom to collaborate encourages creativity. Problems can be solved together that cannot be solved alone.

The third is Rapid Prototyping. This is the idea that rapid prototypes may lead to rapid failures but rapid failure lead more quickly to solutions that work. The Rapid Prototyping motto is "Fail early and fail often."

The fourth is Meritocracy. This is the idea that the best ideas win. When everyone has access to the same information, successful work determines which projects get input, effort, and further work from the Open Source community.

The fifth is Community. Communities form around a common purpose and bring together a broad range of ideas and share the work of the project. The community as a whole can create something greater than any one individual is capable of.

The principle that attracts me the most in the context of this blog is Open Exchange. On a face to face basis, most of the significant improvements in my classroom practice have been the result of the exchange of ideas with other teachers. A blog is a digital forum in which I can reflect on my own practice and kick around the ideas which interest me and if they merit the attention of others in my learning circle then we can learn from the exchange of ideas.

In the context of my actual teaching practice, I want to embrace Rapid Prototyping. One of the biggest challenges in improving my teaching practice and implementing new ideas is finding a path from my current practice to my desired goal. But if I embrace the ethos of Rapid Prototyping then a certain amount of failure is not only to be expected. It's to be embraced. I should just try a lot of different things and if they don't work, reflect on why, modify them and try again. I shouldn't need to be fully assured of success before proceeding.

Welcome YU17CO21!!

Hey all, this blog hasn't seen any action in all the years it's been out there but of course you're all gonna visit fellow IICTers.

I've called it Open Source Teacher and that's an explicit shout out to the Open Source Software movement which, in turn, arises out of the early(ier) days of the internet. Open Source Software is software whose source code (the actual computer language code used to create the software that the user interacts with) is openly available usually under a copyright license that allows others to study, change, and distribute it without restriction. One of the mottos of the early Internet was "Information wants to be free!" and Open Source Software explicitly adopts that ethic. Apache Open Office is an example of Open Source Software. It's a full office software suite that parallels many of the capabilities of MS Office. GIMP is a full blown open source image processing software that rivals Adobe's Photoshop in features and flexibility.

So why call this blog Open Source Teacher? Because the intent is that my/our teaching practice should follow the open source ethic. The source code (foundations, theories, reflections) should be openly available and shared with anyone to study, change, and distribute.

So there!