I've been back to school for a week now. It's time to write a brief post about what I did during my summer vacation. In August my family and I visited the
Women's Rights National Historic Park http://www.nps.gov/wori/ in nearby Seneca Falls. There we stood in the remains of the Wesleyan Chapel where about 300 men and women held the First Women's Rights Convention in July 1848. My daughters stood beside me as we read the names of the people who signed the Declaration of Sentiments, and I was grateful for the work these women and men did in just a few short days to bring about the first convention dedicated to Women's Rights. I reflected on the rights women hold now; and the opportunities that are more open to women than ever before. It is an historic Presidential Campaign with the successes of Senator Clinton in her campaign and with the first woman Vice-Presidential candidate in Sarah Palin. Whatever politics you support you have to appreciate that women have gained much in the political sphere in this round.
In 1848 people learned of the Women's Rights Convention from ads in the newspaper and word of mouth. The event had to be organized very quickly to take advantage of the popularity of Lucretia Mott who was in town for just a few days. Imagine how such a gathering would take place today. Lucretia would write in her blog about a visit to Seneca Falls to see her Elizabeth Cady Stanton, they would secure a place to have the convention. In order to make it available to a larger audience they would invite the press and television stations, and arrange for video conferencing. People viewing the convention on their computers in Canada or Guatamala could type questions and have a voice even from thousands of miles away.
Web 2.0 or Social networking is another area I explored this summer. With the guidance of the Educational Technology staff at BOCES I learned a lot about how to use technology in education. Words like podcasting, blogs, Wikis, and RSS now mean more to me. Would you like to learn more too? I invite you to post a comment on my blog, and begin a discussion about how you would like to see technology transform educational practice.
New Audiobook format - I have 8 playaways now. They are like an MP3 player with an audio book on it, all you need to listen to the book is a pair of headphones. (They run on AAA batteries.) Titles I currently have are: Walk Two Moons; The Watsons go to Birmingham; Surviving the Applewhites; The Giver; Number the Stars; Seedfolks; One-Handed Catch (by Mary Jane Auch); and The Wednesday Wars (2008 Newbery Honor book by Gary Schmidt).
