Who chooses our hangouts?

AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by Jeff McNeill flickr

Creating and connecting communities. It's one of the reasons we are here. When I'm thinking about what we do as teachers, how often do we give power to students to create their own communities.  We're lucky... we chose to be here, well at least I imagine we all chose to be here.

Will Richardson in World Without Walls suggests that most of the meaningful teachers we meet are of our own choosing.  For us, as educators, to fully empower students Richardson pushes us to challenge our understanding of what it means to be a teacher.  No longer are we "content experts" first instead we think of our primary focus as "connectors".

While reading the "Living with New Media"  article the authors discuss how youth have always been negotiating what it means to be a "friend".  While we are online, this creates different opportunities and challenges, but it is still something we are always doing.

This idea that we as teachers and learners, have to be open to change. Open to new ideas, and make our own connections is something that resonates deeply with me.  Creating this COETAIL community is something I've been wanting to do for a year.  Creating meaningful learning experiences is powerful for me, and I'm looking forward to learning more about how I can enable my students to enhance their learning through technology.