“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us… Your playing small does not serve the world.” -- Marianne Williamson
I am so excited to be a part of the K12 Online Conference this year. The theme this year is Learn,
Share, Remix with four substrands: Getting Started, Visioning New Curriculum,
Kicking It Up a Notch and Student Voices. I am thrilled to be sharing stories
about Authentic Voices as part of the Student Voices strand.
If you haven’t participated or “attended” the K12 Online
Conference before, you are in for a treat. Everyday for two weeks at 1pm (GMT) four video presentations are launched. Each video needs to be under 20 minutes
and related the the conference strand. There are a number of different
presenters hitting on topics as varied as Immersive Gaming, Social Media, involving parents and delivering professional development.
For my presentation, the hardest part was choosing which
voices from Authentic Voices to share. For me, every post on the wikispace has a story to
tell. I remember each student: how they responded to recording their work and
publishing it, what was happening in their lives and how writing
became a successful moment in their learning day. But I forced myself to choose just four
pieces that seem to represent the breadth of writing on the site and highlight
different powerful aspects of the project. I hope my listeners enjoy the
selections I play.
In addition to sharing student voices, I wanted to emphasize
three themes:
Recording leads to revision
Authentic audiences help writers bloom
Finding collaborators is challenging but worth the effort
I believe these are the heart of this project and can be
applied to a number of different kinds of projects across subject areas, ages
and classrooms with differing access to technology. If you tune in, please leave me a comment and
let me know what you learned, what questions you have, and what ideas you have
to improve the site.
After watching the keynote address by Kevin Honeycutt I was
both inspired and completely intimidated. His video captured enthused students
building an Apollo 13 museum interspersed with his poignant and passionate
appeals to make education engaging, powerful and meaningful. I was scratching
down quotes during the whole video and more than once rewatched a segment to
make sure I captured his points. If you haven’t watched it yet, here it is, watch it.
And then follow him on Twitter and get further inspired.
With the same breath that felt inspiration from Kevin
Honeycutt, I felt desperation about my own presentation. I realized that my
video would be posted as part of the same conference! What did I think I was
doing? While I am passionate about Authentic Voices and the experience it
provided for students I work with, my work is no where near the same level as
what Kevin Honeycutt has done. What’s worse is that the video itself is
certainly amateurish and basic (just installed Camtasia days before!). How will I hold up? Should I withdraw? Plea for
another week to edit my presentation?
Then I remembered, part of Kevin’s message is that we have
to keep trying. We have to keep putting ourselves out there. It is time to not
just consume the ideas of others but to contribute to the movement of making
educational technology part of school reform. My project might be small and my
presentation might lack finesse, but keeping it to myself does not serve my
students well or serve anyone well. Which brings me back to the opening quote
by Marianne Williamson,
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us… Your playing small does not serve the world.”
So, I am repeating this quote to myself and breathing deeply.
I am excited to be a part of something big and not over-thinking
my own contribution.
I am thankful to be included and not second guessing whether or
not I’m worthy.
And I am joining the conversation.
Learn. Share. Remix.
