Attention Deficit or Distracted Learning For The Right Reasons????

    I knew I had a problem with my attention span in high school when I came up with the brilliant plan of holding my feet up just inches from the floor everyday during Biology in order to try to pay attention in class. This quiet, almost invisible, unobtrusive "task" helped me make it through each and every day of Biology. It wasn't that I didn't like the subject matter - I actually liked science. It was the pace and lack of excitement in the day to day drudgery of listening to lecture that about drove me over the edge. Many kids used their energy in ways that were not as productive to the learning environment of the classroom. (I guarantee you my brothers were not as kind!) While I have never run across another person who was as creative as I was in holding feet up off the floor, I have certainly met too many to count who experienced the clash between lack of engagement and curriculum expectations.
    As I think about how my personal learning has ramped up over this past year I can barely count all the new ways of accessing new learning that I have experienced. I didn't wait for the content to come to me, I went out in search of it as I needed it. The learning has been amazing, yet I find myself with a new type of attention deficit. I am sure there is literature on this with a very specific label - but it is the difficulty in following through with a task because of all of the links and learning opportunities that I find on the way to my destination. Knowing how I am struggling with this lack of focus - I wonder how will we help our students through this pop up window style of learning? (Response to that topic will be a different day's blog.)

    The books, blogs, tweets, and articles that I have read, technology tools I have tried, webinars that I have listened to, technology courses I have taken, virtual conferences that I have attended, and the new professionals who have been added to my PLN are all connections that I am thrilled to have made and continue to learn from. I am so excited about my 24/7 learning opportunities that I share my new learning with anyone who is willing to listen and learn along with me.
    However, I don't want all of this to just stop as information learned. I want to apply my new learning. I am thinking of ways that I can incorporate my new skills and develop my own "classroom" with children from families that I know from across the country and world. I want to experience the fantastic learning opportunities that teachers and students alike experience in connected classrooms and schools. The multi-age virtual classroom that I envision is one that will connect children to schools and classrooms around the world. I can't wait.
    Keep reading to see if I can actually pull this off - if I don't get distracted in the next link I follow, webinar I listen to, or the next great educator that I meet along the way...........