EDUC 584 Reflection

As I said in my Voki, educators need to embrace technology, and incorporate it into the classroom.  This class has made the idea of that possible.  I learned a lot about techology, and I learned about practical ways to make it an effective part of my students' learning.  I went into this class thinking that I was pretty tech-savvy.  That all came crashing down within the first ten seconds of the class, but was slowly rebuilt thoughtout the past eight weeks.  I learned to blog and to wiki, as a professional development tool. I also learned how powerful they can be for my students.  I discovered Diigo, which is now a rival to my Pinterest page.  I also learned about great tools such as Animoto and Digital Storytelling.  I can easily see myself using these tools for years to come!  Overall, it has been a whirl-wind eight weeks, but eight of the most useful and eye-opening weeks of grad school. 

Major Project

Since I have learned about what a wonderful tool Diigo can be, I have begun to go through my Pinterest pins, and bookmark the pages on Diigo.  I haven't gotten very far (haha!), but I think that this process may (may?!) take awhile.  It will probably turn into a vacation project (yeah, right!), most likely a summer project (who am I kidding?), definitely an on-going project...

Richardson, Chapters 3 and 4

In Chapters 3 and 4, Richardson discussed blogs and wikis.  He described what they are, their potential uses, and how to create, set up, and maintain both.  As I am learning more about blogs and wikis, I am warming up to them more.  I think that it's really cool how students can connect what their learning in the classroom, with that they're doing outside of the classroom walls.  The "connected-ness" is cool.  And yet, I find it a bit scary.  I suppose that the same philosophy rings true for social media, and, for my intents and purposes, I'll talk about Facebook, which is my social media of choice.  I like how I can keep up with how/what my friends and family are up to, especially if they are far away.  Sometimes, though, the idea that they are doing the same thing to me freaks me out a bit!  I love how Richardson recognizes that people (teachers) may have those reservations and fears, and he does well will easing them.  I definitely think that this type of technology (blogs and wikis) can, and will, take place in my classroom!  Reading Richardson, and seeing great examples (such as Portland, Oregon's Meriwether Lewis Elementary's blog), has inspired me to learn more, and think about ways that I can incorporate them into my classroom!

Richardson, Chapters 1 & 2

Will Richardson's Bogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is a very interesting book.  I think that these bringing these new methods into the classroom will be exciting for teachers and students.  This is a challenging time in education.  So many changes have happened, and will happen, especially when it comes to the use of technology.  On page 8, Richardson wrote something that really surprised me, and stuck with me.  "William D. Winn, director of the Learning Center at the University of Washington, belives that years of computer use results in children who 'think differently from us.  They develop hypertext minds.  They leap around.  It's as though their cognitive structures were parallel, not sequential.'"  This stuck with me so much because while I value and see the power of technology in my students' futures, I think that everything technology is "fine and dandy."  I think that it has the ability to cause many problems.  I think that my students, and even my peers, are too connected.  I do not think that everybody has to be constantly connected to an electronic device.  I think that some time away is a good thing!