Syntax Smyntax

I attended the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference today in Nashua and whoda thunk a blog worthy comment would relate to syntax?

For the few human beings who know me, you know I am a type-A chick who loves the blend of technology and education. I spend ridiculous amounts of time playing with technology tools in the hopes that one of these tools will come in handy when I am in midst of the business of educating our youth. I start playing with a tool the minute my masters program professor mentions it in class...I drive my co-workers and co-students nuts. I am sorry! It is just the way my brain operates.

So it is interesting to me that the piece of information I walked out of the Moving Beyond the Basics: Using Web 2.0 Tools in Your Blog or Wiki session today wasn't a cool Web 2.0 tool....instead, it was the mission to learn more about syntax....syntax for internet searching, syntax or Google Spreadsheets, SYNTAX....how mundane, but how important for a technology teacher!!

We can assume that students know how to search the internet just because they use Google...but how many of us have spend too much time searching the net for info that we could have acquired quicker by visiting our informed local librarian? Searching the web for relevant reliable information is not as easy as it seems. Students must e taught that syntax of careful web searches.

Similarly, using web 2.o tools to the degree that they relate to the appropriate age-group and curriculum area we want to cover is also more difficult than we may think. The presentors of this session showed us some powerful Google Spreadsheet tools that they just learned about, but the message that connected with me was that we were just learning the tip of the iceberg...the trick of really 'getting it' was to determine how to learn all of the syntax of the tool and to share that with the teachers I am asked to influence....I am on it!