Week 3 (article - Student As Contributor: The Digital Learning Farm by Alan November)

Week 3
Student As Contributor: The Digital Learning Farm by Alan November

p. 1 – “To prepare for the industrial economy, students were required to attend schools where teachers became central figures and where children took on more passive roles within their communities.”

The notion that the industrial revolution brought about such a profound role reversal of children within their communities had never occurred to me until reading this. It makes perfect sense, and I wonder why it was that teachers felt they had to treat children simply as receptacles of knowledge. Probably because the evolution of teaching and learning has revealed many counterproductive practices.

p. 2 – “How many eyes do you think would be opened by the differing views that occur during the debate?”

In addition to the considerable benefit students would garner from working cooperatively with one another in contributing valuable skills to the classroom community, using technology in the classroom has a huge draw for many students, making the learning inherently rewarding. I have seen this in classrooms that I have been in this semester and last semester. Kids want to use the Smart Board, computers, and other technologies. It’s part of the life that they bring into the classroom, so why shouldn’t it be part of their classroom lives?

p. 3 – “Kiva is one of today’s most important social responsibility Web sites.”

I had heard of Kiva before but had never considered using it in the classroom. What a great way to tie in every discipline (Math, language arts, social studies, science, etc.) into one large socially conscious project!

Week two (ch 3, 5, 7)

Week 2
p. 46 “Giving each student a Weblog basically means a paperless classroom”.

While I love the idea of having no papers to keep up with, I can’t help but think that having no real (no-virtual) records of student work is asking for trouble down the road for students and educators.

p. 71 “There are also a few tools aimed at helping you consume all that information in more efficient and relevant ways. Meet RSS.”

Since reading this chapter a week ago, my time spent searching the numerous music web sites and blogs that I frequent has been streamlined to the point where I can actually complete my school work in a timely manner. ☺
While I’m joking a little here, I am amazed that I lived in a world without RSS before – it is a serious tool for anyone who uses the Internet that will definitely change the way that you use the Internet. The information that only you want to see (“The Daily Me!) literally comes to you rather than you going to it. I love it!


p.103 – “Oh, and since we’re talking about RSS, don’t forget that you can also “subscribe” to a particular tag so you can receive any new photos that people post with the keywords…)

I used to think that I knew how to use the Internet in a fairly reasonable way. Now I know that all of these free tools (such as RSS for images!) have been available and I feel a little silly for not having used them until now. Excellent information to be aware of! I also love the potential for collaborative learning with Flikr. I can’t wait to use it in my own classroom.

Week One reading reflection

p. 36 – “Blogging can teach critical reading and writing skills, and it can lead to greater information management skills. It can help students become much more media and information literate by clarifying the choices they make about the content they write about, and it teaches them about how networks function, both human and computer, and it can teach the essential skill of collaboration.”

The profound educational implications of blogging hadn’t hit home for me until reading the February '09 Harper's Magazine this week, where in the index was listed the following statement:
“Number of applications submitted last fall for a $10,000 collegiate “blogging scholarship”: 1,902”

As mentioned in Richardson’s text above, blogging gives students a set of essential tools to survive in the 21st century. There is so much information available online to sift through that knowing where and how to look is the only way one can reasonably make sense of it all. Higher educators are now acknowledging this fact and are encouraging and rewarding interest and skill in using these computer literacy tools. Interestingly, Harper's also pointed out the following fact, revealing the reality of our computer-age, only reinforcing Richardson’s point:

“Number that turned out to be spam: 557”

p.45 - "With younger students, you may want to show what other elementary schools are doing..."

This is something that I talked about with my former mentor teacher (Philip Wakeman at Simpsonville Elementary) and we agreed that it would be beneficial from a number of standpoints. We also talked about using Skype to communicate in real time, bring the diverse communities of Atkinson and Simpsonville together to conference, perhas, on writing. This technology has potential to be very powerful since you see the people you are talking to via a Smartboard. Free software too!

Technology Autobiography

Kevin Coultas’ Technology Autobiography

Although I came to computers relatively late in life (I bought my first one (Mac G4) ten years ago when I was 28), they quickly became an integral and indispensable part of my daily life. At first, I mainly used the computer to keep up with friends and relatives via email. I then began to use them for more creative endeavors at work and at home. I would generate orders, reports, and analyze buying and selling trends with computers in my job as a buyer for a local small business. At home, I used the computer and recording software such as Digidesign Protools to record and edit my own and others musical groups.
After moving from Louisville to New York five years ago, I began to use the entire Microsoft Office suite on a Windows platform computer for the first time for work in my new job as national sales manager for a music distribution company. I used Acrobat Reader and (minimal) graphic editing software as well. Upon moving back to Louisville from New York two years ago I began working for and eventually took over a music marketing company, and continued using Excel, Word, and Entourage extensively. I am currently at the point where I couldn’t survive without them.
While on tour in Europe a few years ago with a musical group, I started a blog to document places where we played. It was nothing fancy, but it showed me how powerful a tool it could be for sharing ideas and photographs. In the past couple of years, I have jumped on the social networking bandwagon, joining and using facebook, myspace, twitter, and tumblr. Although I wouldn’t include myself in the “addict” category, I do use at least facebook pretty regularly as a way to stay in touch with my many friends that I don’t get to see much any more as I am in school.
Since being in the classroom, I have become spoiled by technology options (both classes I have been placed in have had Smartboards!) I have found these to be indispensable ways of staying organized and exposing students to engaging, interactive and fun modes of learning. I especially enjoy being able to quickly assess students using clickers, but the technology options are virtually endless when one has a Smartboard. I believe that using technology in the classroom adds a whole new level of engagement and incentive for students too. When students can be actively involved in the assignment, be it through publishing on a wiki, or being called on to come up to the Smartboard and add to the classroom discussion, active learning is increased.
Overall, I would say that I am fully “technologized” and have a very open attitude to learning new technologies for use in the classroom. I am especially excited to learn how to best use wikis and blogs for learning and teaching!