Boundaries Blurring, Writing Getting Real at School
Thursday, 28 February 2008 Clay Burell 
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I don’t want to analyze this stuff, when I can just link to it. I’ve blogged recently about the blog of Eeho, a student at my school with whom I’ve never spoken, and never had in a class. But I read him, and comment, and he comments back, and it’s real fun. It’s real, period.
We’ve discovered we share the same songwriter heroes (Bowie, Cohen, Cave, Waits) lately on this latest post on his blog.
And Lindsea from Students 2.0 has joined the conversation there too. (She’s everywhere these days, doing some incredible things to create student-led collaboration on a global, teacher-less scale.)
I said I won’t analyze, but I will go this far: We are engaged in discovering each other as people, sharing our passions and favorite things via Eeho’s blog. That means we’re writing, reading, learning from each other.
How this fits in traditional schooly norms of writing and reading and “learning,” how it can be assessed, and other such issues, I really can’t square with the natural, unsquare feel of it all.
But there’s a glimpse of a future in that post – and in the relationships forming in the comment thread – I hope to see more of in education.
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No. 1 — February 28th, 2008 at 11:43 am
What are the boundaries? As a principal my teachers turn to me on guidance to advise them on certain limits. I don’t like living and working in a world that is perpetually scared of law suits because of fears of what ifs.
In the building we advise to have conversations in public settings etc. Is positing back and forth on a public blog more or less the same format of communication?
Education is people focused so it will always be messy because of that. Sharing interests etc. is part of life. One of the students in my school shares a love of commodity trading. As a former pit options trader I find it remarkable a 17 year old living in Peoria (not a world financial center) would have the same interest.
I’ve e-mailed her some articles and always cc her parents. As we continue to operate in this new frontier it is a poignant question to ask, “What are the new boundaries?”.
Charlie A. Roy’s last blog post..Survey Monkey a New Web Tool
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No. 2 — February 28th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Hi Charlie,
I’m with you. I interact with the high school students who choose to interact with me roughly as I interact with any other person online – honestly, playfully sometimes, and without shying away from controversial ideas (another word for that critical thinking canard society – or at least school – pays lip service to.
I guess I’m lucky because I’ve had so many careers, and am so used to change, that I don’t worry about losing my job as an educator for trying to be the best educator I can, by my own lights. I just trust I’ll land on my feet.
If you haven’t read Sean Law’s post on Students 2.0, “Where Do We Draw the Line?”, it’s a great post with a great discussion.
Thanks for dropping in. You sound like the kind of administrator I’d like to work with as a teacher.
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No. 3 — February 28th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
This is our future Clay and it’s starting to happen now. Lindsea is inspirational. Our school is going to get on board with your Global Cooling project – we’re hoping to launch it next Thursday afternoon with our Yr 9 students and hopefully have Lindsea join in with Skype to help get our students motivated. I talked with my Principal today and he’s really supportive. He wants me to present these ideas about the future of learning to our School board. I mentioned the NECC conference in June and he’s asked me to give him a proposal outlining costs etc and intimated that it’s a possibility that I can go. I’m so excited- all of this is possible because of this network – it’s truly incredible!! Thank you.
Jenny Luca’s last blog post..Students showing us the way – that means you Lindsea!
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No. 4 — February 29th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Jenny, Wonderful news! Consider attending the Learning 2.0 Conference in Shanghai as well (or instead?). It’s geared toward the eastern hemisphere.
Add Patrick Nam (on skype, saintp446) to your skype contacts and consider pulling him into your class via Skype too. He’s one of my Seoul students, and being roughly in your time zone (plus a Korean with a New Zealand accent from his years there
), he’ll be a good contact for you and your students.
Finally, I’d love to do a podcast interview with you and your principal to publish here on Beyond School. Administrators like him are crucial to making the shifts happen. Let me know if you’re both keen. Let’s do it real soon.
Clay Burell’s last blog post..Boundaries Blurring, Writing Getting Real at School
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No. 5 — February 29th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I think sharing common ground is important with other students (even if you don’t teach them). I spent a lot of years telling students that I’m a teacher I may have more book knowledge then they do (but they usually have more common sense than I do). But as people, I see us on the same level.
Pat’s last blog post..Using Voicethread in the Classroom
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No. 6 — February 29th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I’ll send you those songs. I think you’ll link them.
Lindsea’s last blog post..A TV show for the blogging generation
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No. 7 — March 2nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I meant “like” not “link”. Wow, Freudian slip…
Lindsea’s last blog post..Scanned
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No. 8 — March 17th, 2008 at 12:05 am
[...] I’m sharing a lot of student bloggers on Beyond School lately, it’s because we only launched our high school-wide blogging program back in mid-January. Two [...]