This week, I used Google Reader to read through some (most) of my TCPCG colleagues' blog posts. The Reader makes it very easy to find the posts and navigate through them. By far, it is a more efficient way to access them than going through a list of links and clicking on individual URLs.
I was struck by a few things as I read through all the posts. Well, I was struck by quite a number of things but I will only mention a couple.
First, there are so MANY websites and types of technology available that it will take a long time to learn about all of them and figure out which ones work best in our own classrooms and teaching style. I am sure this is an ongoing evolving process, as our classes change each year, and our teaching skills develop, and new technologies appear on the scene. It is clear that today's classroom and the classrooms of the future will be very reliant on technology to enhance and supplement the curriculum. How fortunate that today's children are quite comfortable with technology and in many cases prefer it to personal interaction. The interactive technologies- wikis, internet projects, and many websites, for example, will appear to be "all technology" while still fostering relationships and collaboration between students. They may work together more comfortably in this way than working together at a table in a classroom.
I also noticed that while we each had different websites that we noted as our "most likely to use" sites, there were a lot of votes for wikispaces, which is one of my favorites. It can be used in a variety of ways: to document or supplement material covered in class, as a communication tool between students, parents and teacher, as a forum for discussions among students, as a repository of completed projects, as a link to assignments posted on google docs, or links to websites for research and help, a place to view news and current events, and more.
It can incorporate many other sites and technologies- Vokis, calendars, projects, images, google documents, videos, screencasts, links to other websites. Kind of one-stop shopping!
It will be my go-to technology for quite a while I think.
Sheri mentioned a website of internet etiquette (Netiquette) that she would be using and Lori expressed concern about the advisability of using internet websites that connect users with users in other countries to create on line communications, when using it as a resource for school children. Both of those comments serve as a reminder that we can appreciate and utilize these resources but we must remain vigilant and cognizant of inherent dangers and problems.
On a non-technological note, I really enjoyed reading other students' blogs about learning theories. Each person has a different interpretation of the theorists' views. It helps obtain a well-rounded understanding by listening to everyone else's ideas in addition to my own. (that would be "assimilation and accommodation" of ideas from "more knowledgeable others"...) Amazing how many ways there are to view theories and learning and how in the end, it all starts to connect and come together. Whew!
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