Updated Technology Autobiography

My experiences with technology have been great in number, and have increased as time has gone by. I began using a computer in elementary school for typing, and I remember also playing games like “Number Crunchers” and “Oregon Trail”. These were the old Apple computers and I was never too inspired by them, but the gaming aspect held my interest as a young child. It wasn’t until the summer before my freshman year in High School that I began using the World Wide Web to surf the Internet, to access an email account, and to have social interaction with others via instant messaging and chat rooms. I set up my own account on AOL and began emailing friends, family and even people I didn't really know through chat connections.

This use of the Internet opened up a whole new realm for me. I was exposed to it through my uncle in California; he is a film editor and had been using it for years. I signed on to AOL through his account and computer, and had my own hooked up with a few months at home, using dial-up. I loved being able to research online, communicating with family and friends with e-mail, and chatting with people I didn’t really know for fun. I felt connected because of it, and I learned to type faster as well. I used the computer to create projects, got into using clip art and altering photographs, and also for writing in a journal, to which no one else had access. So, there is no wonder I like using weblogs so much; I had created my own offline without even knowing it.
Currently, I use technology in as many ways as I can comfortably, in order to make my life easier, and in some cases even to earn extra money. I take online surveys for extra cash, sell things on Amazon.com, and even publish my writing for a few cents per view. I am connected with the world, and I think that bringing this into the classroom is essential if I hope to reach my students in a way that gets them ready for the real world. I think it is essential that teachers are trained to use new technologies, and given the resources to implement the use of them in the classroom. I know that it changes the way education is brought to children in schools, but it is a positive change overall that should be embraced…it isn’t going anywhere!

My favorite idea about the use of technology that I learned in this class has been that technology is changing the way educators bring information to their students and it encourages collaboration among students, teachers, administrators, parents/family and staff. This is entirely true, things are definitely changing in the school systems, and it is exciting that I am coming into the profession when technology is quickly becoming a part of everyday life for most people. I feel confident that I will be able to incorporate technology in many ways, in large part due to the education I have received at U of L, and I can't wait to open up the doors to the many possibilities to my future students. Who knows what they can do!

Secondly, chapter 9 of the text suggests that one of the major shifts in education currently is from lecture-style teaching to conversational teaching, thus a much more student-centered approach. Thank goodness for this! I think we have finally realized that if we do not focus on the needs of our students we can't possibly help them succeed. Further, students can help us be better teachers if we just listen to them. What a novel idea!

My main issue with the use of technology remains that it presents many dangers to students and can be detrimental to the overall academic success of children if it isn’t used professionally and effectively. What I mean to say is that students can become so dependent upon using the computer for writing and for researching that they no longer have the skills to head to the old-fashioned library when they need a concrete source for a project. Or, if the computer isn’t functioning correctly, the excuses for late work pour in by the bucket loads. I see that teachers must convey to students the rules and regulations for using technology, and make clear their expectations for projects/assignments, but that they must also give students the tools they need to use other avenues in the event that the computer and internet are not available.

The secondary issue I forsee with the increased use of technology is limited availability. From my own student teaching experience I can say that my biggest frustration has been that we only have one Mac Lab at my school that can be reserved for student use, and it is most often taken up by teachers working on portfolios or on-demand/CATS prep programs. I have resolved to get in there over the summer when I figure out just where I will be teaching next year and make some reservations right away so that I can begin visiting the lab about once per week. Also, I am very interested in taking the grant writing course that U of L offers in order to try and secure more computers for my school, wherever that may be.

In closing, I must say that Teaching with Technology has been such a positive experience for me and my students because I took everything I learned into the classroom. They couldn't wait to see what I would bring in each week to show them! I have encouraged other teachers I know who are working on their RankI to take the course, and I have begun to plant the seeds among the older teachers as well. I hope it spreads like wildfire.

Chapter 9

I was so glad that this chapter was included in the book because I am always looking for practical applications to conceptual information. My favorite idea is that the most important implication for technology in the classrooms of the future is a greater emphasis on collaboration among students and teachers. I love that we have worked together in small groups and individually in our class this semester as a model for using the technologies with our students. By doing these projects ourselves, we will be more apt to see practical, everyday applications for the tools in our classrooms.

Further, my favorite “Big Shift” is hands down #4: “Teaching is Conversation, Not Lecture”. What a novel idea! It is amazing that it has taken so long for the field of education to evolve in this way, but I truly do agree that technology will push the field into this mode in the near future, even more so than it already has. For example, more and more teachers are coming out of graduate school with a student-centered approach to teaching, and are ready to use technology to better reach those students. These new teachers are most often very outgoing and willing to draw in their colleagues, asking them to come on board for new uses of technology. The result is a widespread change from the old, boring, non-engaging lecture style teaching that our poor parents and grandparents had to suffer through. Yea!

WebQuest Memo

Mr. Castillo,

Recently, I have had the pleasure of experiencing an emergent techonology called WebQuest, and I feel strongly that you should be aware of its implications in the classroom. Further, with your permission, I would like to present this new technology at the next faculty meeting because it can take our students to the highest levels of thinking and better prepare them for standardized testing.

To begin, I will give you a brief synopsis of the concept of a WebQuest, and direct you to an example that could be used in the classroom here at FCTHS. A WebQuest is an online adventure for students that is safe, engaging, student-centered, challenging, and which allows teachers to incorporate KY Core Content and Program of Studies into their lesson plans quite easily. This is essentially a tool for researching that prompts students to analyze data, create a plan for completing a research project, and synthesize all their findings for the final task. The teacher creates a scenario online to guide the students to very specific, safe websites that will allow them to complete the research, and the students then take over in small groups or individually with the project. Just to give you a chance to see what this means, please check this link: http://questgarden.com/46/54/6/070210123705/t-index.htm. This particular WebQuest is based on 11th Grade Social Studies, which Mr. Haire would be thrilled to see!

I hope this memo has at least introduced you properly to the idea of a WebQuest, and communicated my advocation of its use in the classroom at our school. It can be such a great tool, and anytime we can encourage students to reach new heights academically, we should certainly do it! I would like to take this suggestion a step further, however, and say that we could teach faculty members to use the tool at the next faculty meeting or even create a PD session centered around it. I would be more than willing to help.

Let me know what you think!

Kristie

Chapter 6: Social Web

As I read this chapter, I was reminded of the first time I logged on to AOL and went to a chat room. I was about 14-years-old and had never before used instant messenger. The feeling it gave me was awesome; I felt so connected to the rest of the world, and felt as if I could make friends in a safe, controlled way without having to worry about anyone judging me on my looks, my social status, or my ability to mingle with others my age. I loved the way I could just reinvent myself if I wanted. I know that many other millions of people have felt that same way, and continue to use the Internet to connect themselves to like-minded people across the globe. It is utterly amazing that we can communicate with another student in China that may be in a totally different situation, but may have endless amounts of information and experience to share with us.

The chapter talks about social bookmarking as a way for educators to simplify their lives, and I whole-heartedly agree with the idea. With endless possibilities in our lives at all times, any way to simplify is welcome in my book. Within a single school, I can see where social bookmarking would be an awesome way to share links with colleagues for educational resources, community activities, extra-curricular activities and even planning/problem solving ideas. This would help teachers, in addition to websites, blogs, podcasts, etc., get on the same page and share their individual knowledge and experiences with other teachers. Wow.

The quote that seems to set the stage for the entire idea comes at the end of the chapter, as usual: “But regardless of how you do it, the idea that we can now use social networks to tap into the work of others to support our own learning is an important concept to understand. It’s another example of how collective contributions created by the Read/Write Web are changing the way we work and learn” (100).

Chapter 8: Podcasting

Having already had some experience with podcasting, although very little, I was excited to work on the small group project in class Monday with the tool. It was so fun, even as teachers, to collaborate in such a way that forced us to be concise, utilize time management skills, and also to use creativity to solve a problem, which for us was finding a way to meld all five of our content areas into one short presentation. I can see that this is a great way for students to learn social/communication skills, to use technology in a non-threatening, fun way, and to help teachers stay on top of things even more than they have been able to in the past.

A couple of ideas I had and heard from others in class were:

1. Use podcasting as a way to record the conversations in small groups, such as literature circles, writing workshops, book clubs, etc. so that you as teacher can keep tabs on the quality of conversation, the participation of group members and make decisions based upon the recordings on how to improve the activities. These conversations can then be edited and used for podcasts that can be published on the Internet, perhaps even a class website, for parents, students, and the world at large to use and enjoy.

2. Use podcasting as a way to make book trailers for the books you might want to assign, or if giving the students a choice, these trailers can be used to give the students a preview from which to make a decision. This would be an easy, fun way for students to take their knowledge of a book they have read and pass it along to other students. They could make a radio show with the book trailers, or simply record the main highlights according to their own experiences. You could use this for assessment as well, and also encourage the students in the art of giving concise information. In the all-too-important world of testing, students now need to be ready to give short, complete answers on On-demand writing tasks and standardized tests. This can only help them prepare.

3. Use podcasting as a way to tackle the ever-increasing problem with make-up work in the classroom by asking students to record themselves reading class notes, and/or giving an overview of the day’s activities. I took this idea even further by thinking that perhaps I could require that each student in the class do the recording 2 times in a 6 week period, to make sure that all class meetings are covered. This would mean that students who are in class can each get a try at using the tool, and those who miss class would be able to catch up on the things they missed, without too much extra time spent on my part. This has to be the best idea yet!! I could even record my own voice during the mini-lessons I may give, transfer it onto our class website as a podcast, and say to the absentees, “here is what we did, listen to it and take notes in you free period or after school.” Awesome.

As far as the chapter in the book goes, I love it that there are several free and accessible options for using podcasting in the classroom. This is a tool that I think can be used in every school by every child, and that makes it very unique in the world of technological applications. So many times we complain about not being able to bring these wonderful technologies to our students due to lack of funding, resources or support, but there is simply no excuse with this one. If I wanted to use Idea #3 above, for example, I already own an MP3 player with recording capabilities that could be used with my own laptop to put this together. And, soooooo many kids have IPods that could be used as well. This can really work, and I am so happy to hear all about it.

Wikis

Chapter 8: WIKIs

I was utterly fascinated by this chapter because the idea is one of the only that we are working on this semester with which I am unfamiliar. Of course, wikipedia is no stranger; I use it constantly myself and with my tutoring students at U of L. However, I never knew or even thought about the implications of a wiki in the classroom. I think it seemed like something kids couldn’t do before I read this chapter. Now, I see all the wonderfully exciting possibilities.

A few sections of the text jumped out at me, so I will just give a few examples:
1. “Giving students editorial control can imbue in them a sense of responsibility and ownership for the site and minimize the risk of someone adding something offensive” (65).

Anytime we can promote a greater sense of responsibility in our students, it is a positive thing. So many of them have no sense of responsibility, no accountability, and no sense of purpose in general, this can be such a great help. In my experience, if you give the students responsibility for their own learning and the success of a large project, many of them will rise to the occasion in a big way. Also, this is a way to teach morals and ethics without getting tricky, or stepping on anyone’s toes in a religious way. I love it!

2. “On his own blog, Paul says, “To write in a wiki is to compose within a living organism”. As students approach the wiki with writing ideas in mind, they first search to see if content about that topic has already been posted. So they need to read critically first, if they are to find the areas where information is missing or disorganized” (67).

The idea that using this and other kinds of technology requires students to “read critically” is a new idea to me, and is great for gaining support from administrators/faculty. If those of us who believe in the use of these technologies can present the benefits, which are numerous, and minimize the possible negatives, we can finally bring our students and our schools into the 21st century. I had honestly never thought about the fact that students must read critically in order to use a wiki effectively before reading this, and it makes perfect sense.

3. “The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort” (74).

I am a big believer in creating a safe, hard-working, organized community within the classroom, so this idea really hit home. In order to be the best we can be as teachers, we have to not only teach students core content and POS, but we have to get them ready to live in a technologically advanced world as well if we want to set them up for success. This sense of community online is spreading like wildfire, especially through social sites like MySpace or Facebook, and tapping into that for educational purposes is a brilliant, and necessary idea to reach students.

New Idea

I have decided to change my digital story idea; now I am going to make a movie about all the "hats" I wear in my life that make me who I am. I still want to make the digital story for my students and cooperating teacher, I just realized that it will take a very long time to do that, and I don't have all the pictures I need. I don't have a digital camera of my own, so I will need to borrow one in order to complete that endeavor.
So my new digital story will be just as cool, although not nearly as emotional. I could use this with my students, to show them who I am outside of a teacher, minus one picture that shows my friends and I at a party, just as Karen suggested with her story. It also allows me to save these pictures in a digital format for later in life...kind of like a scrapbook. I can see how easily this would be a great way for kids to do the same thing; they could even create an autobiography with this project. Hey: I think I just got a great beginning-of-the-year project for my kids!!

My Digital Story Draft

What story do I want to tell?
I want to find a way to wrap up my student teaching experience and make a digital scrapbook of sorts as a keepsake of the semester. I will have one week after Spring Break to spend with my students during CATS testing, and on my final day, I will share this digital story with them. I want to make a scrapbook of my experiences, great lessons we have all learned together, cool pictures of students in action, etc.

Why now?
It is important to me that I record these experiences while they are wrapping up, so that I don't put it off in the future when there is way too much going on for me to think about it.

Audience?
I would like to dedicate this to both Ms. Rietze, my cooperating teacher, and my students.

Adopt and Adapt

Thank goodness somebody finally addressed my biggest complaint about teaching with technology! I am so glad that Edutopia recognizes that even though we all have at least one computer in our room, it is mostly used to do old things in old ways, like sending email to teachers everyday, trading lesson plans, and posting grades. This doesn't mean we are techonologically savvy at all, just that we are gradually becoming a paperless society (notice I said gradually!). Until everyone in administration of local schools and in the Federal Department of Education gets on board with the necessity of using technology in our planning and practice, hardly anything will be done on a large scale. I am not sure if this will happen soon, or until a new generation of teachers, administrators, legislators, and superintendants come into the mix. The "immigrants" are still too conservative and need to wisen up, if you ask me. My hope is that all of those new to the teaching profession who have been introduced to the benefits of teaching with technology will help move things along by affecting change in their classrooms, schools, and communities.
Something else positive that I picked up on in the article was the section that asks: "How do we move forward?" BY asking students what they know, pre-assessing if you will, and combining that with what we know, I can't even begin to imagine what will be done. It will be amazing. I already have plans to try and reserve the computer lab at whatever school I will be working next year once a week, to allow students to be introduced to a new tool each week for the first month or two of school, and utilize a school blog as well. I think it will not only encourage the use of the internet as an educational tool, but will also help build community in the classroom.
I did see something that worries me, only because I am not sure about its implications. One section of the article discusses the idea that students each need a personal device for computing that will become an extension of his or her brain. I am reminded again of the novel Feed by M.T. Andersen because the students in his novel literally had a feed hooked up in their brains 24/7. I am worried that students will become too dependent somewhere inside of me, but I also recognize that these tools can take students to a level we could never even have imagined 10 years ago. I think my worry comes from fear of change, but I understand and support the need for it. I know that other "immigrants" are thinking along the same lines, but unlike me, they are paralyzed by their fear. Sad.

Synching Up

What a fabulous idea for analyzing Nathaniel Hawthorne! Student hate reading his work, generally, because it is so difficult and laden with vocabulary and 19th century dialect. I definitely agree also that kids react much differently when they can utilize their technological knowedge, and type instead of write. Not to mention that this activity would eliminate the need to collect a bunch of handwritten papers that needed to be individually graded. How wonderful!
I thought the bit about Leapster was interesting as well because it is so true that kids have such short attention spans now. It is nothing for a student to sit and listen to music while typing, or reading, and instant messaging a friend every minute or so at the same time. Keeping kids on their toes is important, and I see the need to integrate technology into our lessons. The problem is, as I have pointed out many times, I don't have access to 30 computers for my students on a daily basis, and sometimes they can't even use the computer lab once per month. This is troubling to me, and I see a great need for teachers to learn to write grants, and to push for more technology in the classroom. I know it is the only way we are going to truly guide our young people to academic success.

Flickr Project

I have decided to do my project on two over-arching KY Core Content Standards, and show the ways in which the activity I am doing with my students meets the indicators for the standards. The standards are:

A. Interpreting Text: High School Reading
*Requires readers to extend their initial impressions to develop a more complete understanding of what is read. This involves linking information across parts of a text as well as focusing on specific information.

B. Reflecting and Responding to Text: High School Reading
*Requires readers to connect knowlesge from the text to their own background knowledge. The focus is on how the text relates to personal knowledge.

My activity is called Socratic Circles, and as you will see in my Flickr project, it is set up to encourage discussion and debate among students and to push them toward using higher level thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This activity specifically meets several of the indicators for these standards in the following ways:

1. RD-11-3.0.2: Students will analyze an author's purpose in a passage.
In this activity, I assign a short passage or several short poems for the students to read for homework. They are to apply six techniques of analysis to the reading, including: question, analyze, evaluate, elements of the passage, connect (text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to world), and argue. The students them present this information to their class members when it is their turn to speak in the inner circle.

2. RD-11-3.0.4: Students will accept or reject an argument, giving supporting evidence from the passage.
The students who are speaking in the inner circle often debate with one another when they discuss the arguments they have prepared for homework. They have a copy of the passage/poem in front of them so that they can support their argument with text.

3. RD-11-4.0.1: Students will evaluate the content or make connections as it applies to students' lives (text-to-self), real-world issues (text-to-world), or other texts (text-to-text).
By asking the students to make connections that go beyond the text itself and the author, students synthesize a ton of information, bringing it together to share with their peers. Students often pull from research on the author or the text, their notes/experiences in classes such as Social Studies or Science, and even connect to their own lives in very personal ways.

For more information on this activity, please visit http://www.stenhouse.com and type in "Socratic Circles".

The book, by Matt Copeland, is available on this website, and you can read a chapter or two online for free.

Here is a link to my images, which are a combination of found images and actual photos of the classroom setup for Socratic Circles:

http://flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?nsid=7265413@N05&set_id=&text=&tags=&tag_mode=&user_id=7265413@N05&favorites=&group_id=&contacts=&frifam=&single=&firstIndex=&firstId=&sort=&v=1.6&codeV=1.36&full=0

Chapters 3, 5, 7

Chapter 3
This chapter had a nice dose of reality in it, but it doesn’t offer many options to those of us who have technologically illiterate students, or those who don’t have internet access at home, or resources at school that allow for blogging as a class. I feel that using a blog can certainly be a great asset to get students reading, communicating, and also for getting them prepared for the world at large, which is using the blog more and more in everyday application. However, I also see that many students will shut down immediately if I assign a blog for homework, or use it as a method of communicating with my classes. I have encountered this before with something as simple as typing a writing piece; the students who don’t have computers at home often take a zero on the assignment and don’t do it at all, just because they don’t have a place to type it outside of school. This is unfortunate but it is the truth. I have only limited access in my classroom, and am working to make that better, but I often have trouble getting administrators to agree with me, because they don’t use the technology either. Ugh.

Chapter 5
Wow. The RSS sounds so exciting! I know to some it must sound like just another thing to read everyday, but to me it sounds as if this technology will help keep me abreast of new ideas, new legislation that relates to education, and also tons of background material that I can use in my classes at U of L and in the classroom with my students. I enjoyed learning about feeds and how blogs are actually linked to their feeds. Understanding this kind of language will help me explain it to my students, and keep up with those who already know about this kind of stuff.
As far as implications for teaching, I see several advantages for having this technology. My favorite is that it will cut down on the huge stacks of paper I take home everyday by allowing student work to be sent to my aggregator through their blog. In an ideal world, this would probably happen everyday because my students would each have a computer in the classroom and at home. What will actually happen is I will try to reserve the lab once a week, and allow students to use this tool at that time. The other use is obviously the research feed. Students are always mystified as to how they can gather up-to-date information on a topic, and this takes the guess work out of it completely! Having someone else doing 24/7 research for them will definitely appeal to students; the less “work” they have to do the better!

Chapter 7
Since reading this chapter, I have had a great epiphany about a drama project I am assigning as the culmination for my unit on The Great Gatsby this six weeks. My students are going to create a dramatic representation of the novel, including something from each chapter, in small groups. I had already thought of offering the option to create a video and show this in class, rather than acting it out in person, but knowing about flickr has prompted me to offer the option of using digital photography to create a presentation. I am already familiar with Windows Movie Maker, and feel confident that I can create a reference sheet to help students with an interest in this type of project. I was not familiar with the ways in which I could share this material with other classrooms, even to kids in other parts of the world, and facilitate discussions based on the productions. I think this will help the kids make bigger connections with students from across the globe, just like them, on a variety of topics, including literature. My only regret is that I don’t have wireless access in my classroom…I have to run a very long cord across the room from the wall outlet in order to access the internet, and I have to reserve a projector, of which there are only two in the whole building. I can’t wait to try this, but I am afraid it will have to wait until next year, when I hopefully have my own classroom full of kids. Maybe I should just invest in a projector of my own!

Research Strategies

When I begin researching, I always check the search engines on Google and AOL. I often see what kind of result I get, and then hit Wikipedia if applicable. If I am going for educationally related research, I hit the KDE website and JCPS online, then go to NCTE for more ideas. Last, but certainly not least, I look for online articles and hard copies of books on Minerva, which is U of L's library, and also the Louisville Free Public Library. By the time I do all of this, I have a VERY wide range of research materials to pull from for whatever project or assignment I am working on.

Technology Autobiography

My experiences with technology have been great in number, and have increased as time has gone by. I began using a computer in elementary school for typing, and I remember also playing games like “Number Crunchers” and “Oregon Trail”. These were the old Apple computers and I was never too inspired by them, but the gaming aspect held my interest as a young child. It wasn’t until the summer before my freshman year in High School that I began using the World Wide Web to surf the internet, to access an email account, and to have social interaction with others via instant messaging and chat rooms.
This use of the internet opened up a whole new realm for me. I was exposed to it through my uncle in California; he is a film editor and had been using it for years. I signed on to AOL through his account and computer, and had my own hooked up with a few months at home, using dial-up. I loved being able to research online, communicating with family and friends with e-mail, and chatting with people I didn’t really know for fun. I felt connected because of it, and I learned to type faster as well. I used the computer to create projects, got into using clip art and altering photographs, and also for writing in a journal, to which no one else had access. So, there is no wonder I like using weblogs so much; I had created my own offline without even knowing it.
Currently, I use technology in as many ways as I can comfortably, in order to make my life easier, and in some cases even to earn extra money. I take online surveys for extra cash, sell things on Amazon.com, and even publish my writing for a few cents per view. I am connected with the world, and I think that bringing this into the classroom is essential if I hope to reach my students in a way that gets them ready for the real world. I think it is essential that teachers are trained to use new technologies, and given the resources to implement the use of them in the classroom. I know that it changes the way education is brought to children in schools, but it is a positive change overall that should be embraced…it isn’t going anywhere!
My only issue with the use of technology is that it presents many dangers to students and can be detrimental to the overall academic success of children if it isn’t used professionally and effectively. What I mean to say is that students can become so dependent upon using the computer for writing and for researching that they no longer have the skills to head to the old-fashioned library when they need a concrete source for a project. Or, if the computer isn’t functioning correctly, the excuses for late work pour in by the bucket loads. I see that teachers must convey to students the rules and regulations for using technology, and make clear their expectations for projects/assignments, but that they must also give students the tools they need to use other avenues in the event that the computer and internet are not available.

Chapter 2

There are several quotes in this chapter that gave me a reason to stop and think:
1. “Blogs engage readers with ideas and questions and links. They ask readers to think and respond. They demand interaction” (18)
This made me think of the correlation between blogging and the teaching of reading. The blog requires students to read, to think about what they have read, to respond to that reading, and all the while they are interacting with another human being in some way, even if it is not face to face. These are the things that we try to encourage our students to do when they read offline as well. Why not combine the two activities to help reinforce the strategy? This can only help make the use of reading strategy easier. And, students respond so much better, in most cases, when you use technology as the medium. This is exciting!
2. “…blogs are a collaborative space, as readers become a part of the writing and learning process” (19).
Again, I thought of the push toward a constructivist methodology in our training as new teachers, and how the blog will help us to bring students together in a safe, interactive manner. This truly is a tool for learning, specifically for the teaching of reading and writing. I think students will feel much less pressure and initial resistance to writing if they are in this interactive space online. Further, it can be used as a springboard for other activities.
3. “Even at this still-early stage of development, blogs are being used as class portals, online filing cabinets for student work, e-portfolios, collaborative space, knowledge management, and even school websites” (21).
I couldn’t help thinking about one of the #1 problems for every teacher when I read this part of the chapter: PAPER. On the most basic level of thinking, blogs create a space for students to file work, for teachers to grade work without a pen and paper, and for administrators, parents and other members of the community to view their progress. What a novel idea! This could help cut down on the waste of paper for daily assignments, and the stacks upon stacks of paper that teachers inevitably carry home to grade.
4. “Tom, who teaches at my school, has his students use their blogs to become experts in an area of their choice” (29).
This struck me for two reasons: it encourages student choice, and it meets about 10 NCTE, NTS, and IRA Standards. By allowing students to have a choice in the subject matter about which they write, you effectively draw them in and allow their passion to shine through their writing. This will most likely come through in the product, thus increasing the quality of their writing, boosting portfolio scores, test scores, grades overall, etc.

Chapter One

In reading the first chapter of the text for this class, I honestly found some very interesting information and commentary on the subjects of both technology in the world at large, and how it affects us as educators. I enjoyed the use of "computer speak", and the terminology that I wouldn't otherwise be familiar with or use myself. For example: "RSS may be the new 'killer app' (extremely useful application) for education" (Richardson 8). In fact, this idea of RSS was completely foreign to me, and I consider myself pretty technologically savvy. Having content come to me is interesting, and the implications this carries for educators are extraordinary to say the least. I makes me a bit nervous, though, after reading the novel Feed by M.T. Anderson; it paints quite a frightening picture of the extreme dangers that technology can bring. The students in the novel, which is set in the future, also had information coming to them, whenever they needed it, at all times, just as the RSS operates. The problem became that the students were never satisfied with anything, because there was always something new popping into their heads, and technology was ultimately their downfall. Again, this was extreme, but it still scared me appropriately into taking a second, and third, look at the possibility of disaster when it comes to using technology for teaching. The text does a great job of covering this briefly, and I look forward to discussing it in class.
Some things that also interested me about this chapter, and about which I would like to learn much more:

• flickr
• xanga
• how to cover the appropriateness of content being published and other dangers with students
• web portfolios
• online photo galleries that are educational and appropriate for everyday use