Wes+Fryer

[|Homepage] Blog: [|Moving at the Speed of Creativity] [|Bio] and [|Vitae] Twitter: [|wfryer] Skype: wfryer Wiki presentation and workshop curriculum for teachers: [|teachdigital.pbwiki.com] Web 2.0 sites to which I belong and periodically contribute: http://claimid.com/wfryer

A Few Thoughts
I am an educator with varied experiences, having taught elementary students for six years, working with university faculty for five years, serving as a state and national education advocate for a large telecommunications company for two years, and currently serving as the director of technology and education outreach for a nonprofit focused on oral history and digital storytelling.

Two of the projects I'm currently passionate about (and will remain passionate about for the foreseeable future, I think!) are our statewide [|Celebrate Oklahoma Voices] oral history project as well as [|the K-12 Online Conference]. I think it is vital that we, as educators, personally use collaborative technologies in creative ways and connect with each other in our own personal learning networks. I saddens me that in many of our U.S. schools we have spent millions of dollars on technology, yet students barely have any opportunities to utilize those digital technologies to create, collaborate and communicate. I aspire to be an advocate for the cause of constructive educational reform at local, national and international levels, and one of the most important ways to do that (IMHO) is by helping teachers and students connect with each other to collaboratively create and share ideas. We have a multitude of tools at our fingertips and are only beginning to glimpse the possible doors which connected learning technologies can open for learners of all ages. While many continue to fear the technologies, I find it is the instructional practices (pedagogy) which are the most important to address when working with teachers. It's so easy to lecture. It's so easy to NOT differentiate the opportunities for learning which you provide for your students each day. It's so easy to STOP being a learner and just try to "make it" with the knowledge and skills you possessed as an educator yesterday. Those are exactly the things we should NOT do, and I'm looking forward to participating on this panel because I know I'll learn a great deal from the experience from each of you-- and hopefully will have a few nuggets to share with you as well that will be helpful.

Make it a great day! :-)