Instructional Technologist

Today I had a couple of my “techie” students helping me update a lab. While waiting for some downloads I asked them to think about a utility that would help in moving documents from the desktop into a folder. I then showed them Automator, a Macintosh scripting tool. They mumbled and started toying (research) and then threw some ideas back and forth (collaborate). I walked away for about five minutes; when I returned they said,” OK we think we’ve got it” (create). They ran it for me, played a little more as it didn’t run too smoothly first time around and then ran the application again (present). It worked! They then shared the new learning with my colleague who asked if they could do something similar in the next lab (network).

Later I saw one of the students and thanked him again for helping. He replied, “Thank you for letting me learn something.” Inspiration – facilitated learning.

Thank you to Wesley Fryer for blogging on this great 5 minute presentation by Chris Lehman. It was a high energy presentation that discusses 21st century learning.

A favorite statement is that we should be teaching our students to “research, collaborate, create, present, and network” Another, comment on the role of the teacher is that there is “one thing left to teach: wisdom” is greatly appreciated. Another 5 minutes of Inspiration.