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JOSE RODRIGUEZ: Outward, Outreaching, Outstanding

{Jose Rodriguez}

"Jose [Rodriguez] wrote this beautiful post... that by sharing the knowledge everybody moves along the continuum of learning." commented Seedlings at Bit by Bit co-hosts Bob Sprankle and Cheryl Oakes during an audiocast in the 2007 K12 Online Conference. It must be noted that these two podcasters from Maine were able to find inspiration out of the work of this third grade teacher from an East Los Angeles area school. This example of reaching out globally in an effort to share educational use of technology is what Jose Rodriguez cherishes and encourages in his own classrooms, the one with walls and the one without. His contributions to education have had a significant impact locally at his school, regionally in the Los Angeles area, and worldwide.
 
From Within the Walls
Student learning is his primary focus as Mr. Rodriguez engages his third grade class in meaningful, authentic learning through standards-based multimedia projects that students share through the web for their parents and the local community. They record and publish media for podcasts, presentations, and digital stories. For instance, last semester, students used the comment feature on their classroom blog to offer suggestions for how to save money. Instead of using paper and pencil to write down their money-saving tips, third graders were able to offer their suggestions to other students and teachers representing their global audience, inviting conversation beyond the four walls of the classroom.
 
And Mr. Rodriguez indeed exudes strong commitment to teaching those in his community, serving as a computer-using educator in other ways locally. In partnership with LAUSD's Beyond the Bell program and various business and legislative organizations (i.e. L.A. Junior Chamber of Commerce, National Education Association, YMCA, YWCA), he extends his advocacy of learning opportunities above and beyond the work week to guide at-risk students in an intervention program on Saturdays. Here he frequently uses technology to scaffold learning for these students by using tools such as his classroom blog and Bubbleshare, where students have published their learning through images and audio.
 
Furthermore, he dedicates his evenings to teaching adult school as he facilitates language acquisition in intermediate ESL adult students, infusing the use of technology for authentic learning. For instance, he integrated an audio podcast on Internet Archive.org to help his ESL students prepare for their U.S. Citizenship interview. Acts like these that advance the quality of education for his students illustrate Mr. Rodriguez’s passion at seeking out real world learning opportunities through Internet connections for his students.
It is no coincidence that this year, Mr. Rodriguez was selected as the lead technology teacher at his school as part of an EETT Grant funded multimedia cart program. In this capacity, he has been tasked with providing ongoing professional development to his fellow faculty on using technology as a tool for learning. In this role, he has planned and will encourage teachers to use technology by modeling and sharing best practices through workshops, blogs, and webcasts. And he will continue this work with future workshops for all K-5 teachers on using this new multimedia laptop cart effectively in the classroom.
 
Just Outside the Walls
Mr. Rodriguez has also had a significant impact in the use of technology outside his immediate school community, using his web presence as a vehicle for delivery of content. He has been an active instructor and writer of content for LAUSD's Uniting Professional Development and Technology for Education program, leading his colleagues toward the use of emerging collaborative technologies in a course managed in Google Groups and exploring the 2007 K12 Online Conference. His vita of sharing these new tools also includes various presentations across different locations using Skype to deliver his message to District 5 and 6 Educational Technology Leaders and Coordinators at meetings and using Elluminate to host the LAUSD Technology Showcase webcast. For the last webcast episode, he planned and moderated a session that involved the guest speakers and creators of both OpenCourtResources.com and the Mr. Anker Tests web site.
His importance in promoting the effective use of technology in the regional educational community is also exemplified in ongoing posts on his professional blog, Coordinator’s Office: Views from Behind the NCLB Wall, as well as his participation as a contributor to the blog, InPractice. But greater evidence of his dedication to advocacy of technology use in schools comes from his sponsorship of student teams in conferences such as Infotech, where his students benefited from presenting their own multimedia projects and he modeled the teacher's role in supporting their efforts. It is also at these conferences where he has engaged in roundtable discussions of Web 2.0, providing those who participated with a glance into the use of these tools from the perspective of an educator that has integrated them into his practice.
 
And the Walls Come Down
His efforts have extended his promotion of educational uses of technology far beyond the Southern California community, placing him into the global educational arena. For example, he serves as one of the hosts of the live EdTechTalk webcast show called It's Elementary. Each week, he facilitates the discussion of educational uses of technology in elementary school classrooms. Participants have been treated to connections to guest speakers such as John Pederson and Wes Fryer while focusing on topics such as Internet safety, social networking, and ISTE's NETS standards for technology. Another venue where he has continued to blossom is in his mentoring of intern webcasters. As an instructor of the Internet-driven Webcast Academy, he has helped to guide would-be webcasters through an online-moderated course, delivered using tools such as Skype and UStream.tv along with the chat features of the WorldBridges Webcasting Network.
 
His worldwide connections have expanded readership of his professional learning blogs mentioned earlier. In Coordinator’s Office: Views from Behind the NCLB Wall, Mr. Rodriguez has engaged in conversation with readers around the world, reflecting on the connected learning he experiences. In one of his recent reflections, he used the term "Open Source Learning" to refer to the networked learning that is afforded us through our connections, which has received some notice from many in the "edu-web" community. And he has collaborated with other educators, writing for InPractice, the professional blog that focuses on constructivist instruction for at-risk students involving the use of technology. His contribution to this blog has provided inspiration to others as evidenced in the following comment left for one of his posts, "I appreciated your Jumpstart!... Your phrasing was great! The best tools are "humanware" - I like that!"
 
Through genuine passion and determination to integrate the use of technology into education, Jose Rodriguez supplies energy to students and colleagues alike that transcend the boundaries of walls. As his professional blog’s title indicates, he has found opportunities to weave instructional use of technology into his delivery of standards-based curriculum and has invited everyone to see his views of education in practice. It is for this reason that he represents CUE well in all forums, upholding the mission and purpose of the organization through concerted efforts at sharing how technology use positively impacts classroom instruction wherever that classroom is!