19th Technological Cognitive Load Breakdown

Today’s tech-lab breakdown was intense.  The Google Docs, Forms, and related App tutorials max’d out my “cognitive load.”  So much to master, so many little features to figure out, but it’s all so important. 

With enough Torrey Trust-infused technology training sessions, I’m beginning to believe that any digital caveman/woman is capable of boosting their existing classroom into an interconnected 21^st century learning experience—with the underlying pedagogical principles to go with it (and on that front, a big hat’s off/ shout-out to Dorothy Chun too—she consciously points out the in-class teaching and learning relevance, and that’s super-helpful and super-important).  Colleagues, we’ve got a great team leading us, and I hope that you’re equally happy to be here for the ride.

I’m absolutely amazed at what you can do through Google Apps.  It’s sheer magic.  Its greatest ability, in my opinion, isn’t its user-friendliness, its free/“open source” nature, or its seemingly bottomless database of stored information—it’s its ability to facilitate instantaneous collaborative communication.  That reality offers teachers and their students significant opportunities to engage with each other through authentic assignments with living/breathing human audiences and real-time feedback.  Powerful stuff.

(PS: My blog title’s a spin off the Rolling Stones’ tune, “19^th Nervous Breakdown.”  Right around the time when we were discussing Google Forms/ Send Form/ Embed Form/ and pixel dimensions, I almost lost it (Sara Alamoudi can attest).  Anyways, if you got the pun, an end-of-quarter beer’s on me...)