I am kind of proud that I actually know how to post something on a blog now. I generally don't spend much time "surfing the web", since it was not regarded as a useful tool at my job and I have very little time at home for such activities! But now since it's an actual ASSIGNMENT I guess I have to do it! Fun at school!!!
I started prep for the 6/29 class by reading the assigned articles, and right away I started to get excited about this class. As one of the "older" students, I do see a divide between my use of technology (for work or entertainment) and that of the post-college set of students. I am eager to learn about classroom technology for teaching as well as organizing lessons and connecting to parents at home. For me, the articles sort of set the stage and piqued my interest in the topic of blogging, which I had never tried. When I went to some of the Teacher blog sites, they seemed to often be more like journals for educators to reflect on their concerns, strategies and ideas. Some sited posted interesting reading lists or web links. I did follow some web links and realized that you could spend literally hours in this environment following your "stream of interest" - something I would enjoy doing but do NOT have time for now! Some blog sites seemed more interactive and I saw replies. I thought that the international blogs were very powerful in connecting students in a "real" way to each other from remote locations (awesome tool for social sciences / world languages).
When I visited the classroom blogs, again some were more like journals and "one way" communication from the teacher to the students. Others had students scribe and I saw some student use. During class a couple were mentioned that I did not yet visit, which sounded more interactive. I thought that reviewing blog sites from other science teachers would be a great way to get ideas.
In the classroom, setting up the blog was much easier that I anticipated. I liked Liz's pace and informal style. It's great to have facilities where 28 students can all follow along on-line! I guess that shows my age again!
Jeff's portion of class was thought provoking in that different MAC students all shared great ideas about classroom technology they would like to use - and some of the most simple devices (i.e. overhead projector, cassette tape player) were agreed upon as some of the most useful. It will be interesting to see what the real classrooms offer and what budgets within our teaching assignments really mean.
More later....
First Day of School 2007
My Best Guys
Happy Birthday Carl!
Ben n' Nick (we found him!)
Go State!
4 comments:
The question of the reality of the resources teachers have access to and the dreams of "ideal" teaching equipment is one I found interesting too. I think I'm perhaps a bit anachronistic in my approach, but I can see that I could use that to my advantage in some situations. It'll be interesting to see how things develop!
I think your comments about the technology "divide" are especially relevant to those of us with longer personal histories than some of our classmates. I think we have a greater appreication for the advances we've seen even in the last few years. I will likely be able to figure out the new IPhone by the time they've upgraded it 12 times. I still remember thinking Space Invaders was as good as it gets.
Bob, when you get right down to it, Space Invaders really is as good as it gets.
Hi Lynne
Thank you for sharing some of your background and where you are coming from, it really helps Jeff and I understand how to better conduct the course. One of my favorite examples of using blogs to benefit students (and something that would be difficult to do without them) are from a former MACer who is teaching in Detroit and found that his 11th graders were not very motivated about their future potential. As a result he decided to set up "mentor blogs" where the students are connected with a professional "mentor" in their area of interest. Here is a link to one example:
http://waldar08.blogspot.com/
In addition, another favorite (from another former MACer) is one where the teacher asked his students for feedback on his physics course:
Physics Blog
Last, an Ann Arbor middle school teacher uses his blog for everything from homework assignments to podcasts...
http://www.scienceguyinatie.com/
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