Making all teachers online teachers

I whole-heartedly endorse subversion when it is defined as "going the right thing for the wrong reasons." And one of the most wonderfully subversive ideas I've heard for sometime was thrown out by Barrie Jo Price (emTech.net) at EARCOS Administrators' Conference I attended earlier this week.

She and the late Bob Sills, former director of EARCOS, came up with a "Business Continuity Model." And it goes something like this... Should a catastrophe occur (epidemic, tsunami, political revolt, etc.) that requires the evacuation of an EARCOS member international school, the Business Continuity Model would allow schooling to continue even if students and staff can't come to the physical buildings themselves. This can only happen online and only happen if the tools, resources, training and experiences are already in place. In other words, by creating online learning environments that supplement F2F teaching now, schools will be prepared for any eventuality when ALL teaching needs to go online.

This is brilliant.

I like the idea of hybrid learning environments simply because:

• students like them
• they lead to constructivist-based learning
  
• they encourage 24/7 learning

In other words, good teaching happens online. If it takes disaster planning to convince administrators that all teachers need to be operating in at least a partical online teaching/learning environment, so be it. Whatever the reason, the result is positive.

Every teacher should be using an online teaching environment. This is one way to actually get every teacher there.

People finding tools

A teacher in our district recently asked for help finding online tools that could assist him in locating his  estranged half-sister. (Their father had recently died.) Not having conducted such a search myself, I turned to LM_Net and MEMO-L library lists for expert guidance.

Below is a compilation of suggestions list members sent me. Thanks to everyone who responded. I will update this entry if I hear that our teacher finds his sister:

People locators:

• http://www.searchbug.com
• http://whowhere.com
• http://www.infospace.com>
• http://classmates.com
• http://dexonline.com
• http://www.argali.com
• http://people.yahoo.com
• http://www.411.com
• http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_find.htm
• http://www.theemailfinder.com
• http://www.privateeye.com/
• http://switchboard.com
• http://www.virtualchase.com/people/
• http://qwestdex.com
• http://zabasearch.com
• http://www.daplus.us
• http://www.metacrawler.com/
• http://find.intelius.com (search public records)
• http://www.referenceusa.com/ (Reference USA"subscription database)
• http://www.ancestry.com (subscription database)

Other observations and hints:

• He may need to pay for a search if his half-sister has an unlisted phone number.
• I would try the Google phone book as explained below.......

To find listings for a US residence, type any of the following combinations into the Google search box:
first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
 first name (or first initial), last name, state
 first name (or first initial), last name, area code
 first name (or first initial), last name, zip code
 phone number, including area code
 last name, city, state
 last name, zip code

• How about the places that you can go for family tree help?
• I have heard of people being found by the organization of their profession--e.g.. teacher's associations, etc.  
• College or high school alumni records are sometimes useful (class reunions and all tha).
  

Thanks again to all who responded. The collective wisdom of this profession is amazing.

Is it a search engine or is it a librarian?

Whatever it is, it's pretty hot! Would she help bring more reluctant male readers into the virtual library?

I have no idea who is behind Ms Dewey. (Got the link from an Ozzie librarian who didn't know either.)