I have mentioned before that the UbD Educators wiki has grown quiet. I think there may be two reasons for this:
We’re all busy educators who have difficulty finding the time to create, post, and/or comment on others’ posted UbD units.
We’re not getting what we need out of the wiki.
It’s not in my power to alleviate the first problem, and believe me, I hear you there. However, the second problem is much easier to address. The wiki is only as good as we make it. If you need a feature that the wiki doesn’t have, add it. If you have trouble keeping up with new pages and discussions, try subscribing to the site’s various RSS feeds (you can keep up with all changes or just changes to one page). If you want to make a change, but you aren’t sure, ask the wiki members about it on the Suggestions page. the majority of the wiki’s members have not yet contributed either unit plans or discussions. I want to hear your voice! I don’t mind lurkers, but we have the potential to make this wiki a huge repository of ideas and discussion about UbD, and we can only do that through teacher contributions.
You may recall I am reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat for an online PLU course. In chapter six, he describes the kinds of people who will be “untouchable,” that is their jobs will be safe in the flat world. I admit to thinking that teaching is one of those “untouchable” jobs. However, I am also taking this course online and specifically sought out an online masters program in Instructional Technology to apply to because I did not want to schlep downtown to classes two nights a week or go to a weekly professional development class at a school across town. I wanted the convenience of learning at my own pace, in my own home. And it’s not difficult anymore for adults to find an online program of study. What about K-12? Can teaching be outsourced? If it can, what do we as teachers need to be able to do in order to remain viable in the field of education. If it can’t be outsourced, why do you think that is the case? How will education change in view of the prospect of outsourcing?
