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!