The Story of Anne Mirtschin
A few weeks ago, I invited teachers to relate how their lives as teachers had changed due to engaging with other educators online, and to relate how this change has flowed to their students.
I received the following response from Anne Mirtschin. Here is a quick teaser of what is to follow:
As for me, I am classified a ‘baby boomer’, have loved using technology. It has reinvigorated me in my final years of teaching, so much so, that I do not want to retire for many years. I have ‘refound’ my passion for teaching and learning. I am no longer an ‘out the front’ of the room teacher, but more a facilitator working in amongst the students as their needs arise.
Anne's blog is http://murcha.wordpress.com/ and her Twitter ID is @murcha.
I have added in headings to what Anne wrote:
Recount your journey
The Beginning:
My journey began three years ago, when few
students in schools in Victoria or Australia were blogging. As our grade 6
class was developing podcasts for the nearby volunteer run Volcano Discovery
Centre and as we were to use web2.0 tools as part of the Rich Picture Case
Studies grant from our Education Department, that enabled this project to
continue, blogging sounded like a good tool to use to document our journey. So
my teacher blog was started and a class blog called ‘Our Backyard”
A Mentor
At the same time Heather Blakey of Soul Food Café came to our school to run
some professional development, and she became my great mentor, introducing me
to her global contacts. The students had an immediate authentic global audience
and hence our entrance into the wonderful interactive world of web2.0. My
school is a prep to year 12 rural school and is geographically and culturally
isolated, Soon all students from grades 5 to 11 had the own blog.
Growing Relationships
The next step, was to become a member of
classroom2.0 where further valuable contacts were made mostly on a global
basis. This led to the wonderful world of wikis, social networking and global
projects. Twitter was just starting to become mainframe and after a puzzling
start, Sue Waters, now the editor of the Edublogger, adopted me and introduced
me to 20 valuable contacts who in turn led me to make further valuable
connections. A fabulous personal learning network was established. Soon we
heard about and became part of the amazing Flat classroom projects. All these
social networking tools have had an amazing impact on my teaching, classroom
and community.
Busting Open the Classroom to the World
Russia
It means that I can work interactively and
in virtual teams with those who have similar passions to mine. Here are some of
the many stories from my classroom. My students have appeared on Russian TV
news when we videoconferenced with a school in Soglasie Russia. (I met the
teacher Ekaterina on classroom20.com).
Antartica
Our whole school was online from prep to
year 9 linked up in a direct
videoconferenece with a research scientist whilst in Antarctica researching the
Adele penguins.
Earthquake in Java
We have spoken directly
using skype to students in West Java, Indonesia within 6 hours of them being
hit by an earthquake at the end of last year. They were still under tsunami
warnings. We heard the fear in their voices, heard what it was like to
experience an earthquake etc. The bell went but students did not hear it but
were still researching the internet for full evidence of the extent of that
earthquake.
Germany, China, Anywhere
Students from their homes at 9pm at night with proud parents
watching, enter 'Elluminate', virtual classroom software, to join a class with
their fellow classmates from Germany (who are at school) and classmates from
Beijing China to work out their global projects as part of the flat classroom
project. My backchannel through twitter are on hand to immediately answer our
questions eg how can we convert an xtranormal video into mpg or wmv format.
What games do you use in your classroom? Could you fill in our survey forms
etc. . It means my students can learn
anytime, anywhere with techn-how. Students have learnt the techniques of
cybersafety, netiquette, responsible online learning and digital citizenship.
They have started their digital footprints in the global world that is theirs.
Students
My students are motivated, engaged, excited,
empowered, willing to return to school virtually at night time to work with
global classmates and most of all have ‘fun’ whilst learning.
Conclusion
As for me, I am classified a ‘baby boomer’,
have loved using technology. It has reinvigorated me in my final years of
teaching, so much so, that I do not want to retire for many years. I have
‘refound’ my passion for teaching and learning. I am no longer an ‘out the
front’ of the room teacher, but more a facilitator working in amongst the students
as their needs arise. I can teach anywhere, anytime, 24/7/365. At nighttimes I
run online PD sessions for teachers targeted at Australian teachers, but have
found the audience can include educationalists from many countries including
Africa, India, Europe, Asia etc. They come from all levels of education
including pre-school through to university and adult educators all with the one
shared passion – to empower learning and bring education into the 21st
century.