Will Richardson, the author of "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", made a visit to my class this week. He didn't need to drive or take public transportation; he didn't even need to make travel arrangements. We simply turned on our computer, connected it to the Smart Board, and logged on Skype. Our discussion lasted only 15 minutes, but in that time, we were able to have many of our questions answered by the man who wrote our class text.
While having our own questions answered was great, the real value of our meeting was the implications and pathways that were opened before us. To talk and learn about using technology in the classroom is useful, but to see its possibilities put into play made a lasting impression. With this one simple tool, students can get in contact with experts and authors from anywhere on the globe. They can talk to students in other countries, watch and take part in experiments performed in distant labs, or look in on their own class when they're sick without the disadvantage of not being able to ask and answer questions.
The only stipulation here is that the students will need to know people before they contact them. This is where a familiar tool comes in to play: blogging. By setting up an educational blog, a class or student can begin searching out others with similar goals in mind, as well as professionals in various fields of study. By increasing their network, they will be able to reach people they had never seen or even heard of before.
With proper direction, blogging can be a powerful, safe, and effective way for our class to reach out to the vast world. It can open up a network of possibilities, and in the process, teach them valuable social lessons and networking skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. Of course, to help our students make the most of this tool, we ourselves must become proficient users, exploring these possibilities and learning to make the most of them.
My goal here is to make connections with educators, authors, experts, and everyday people around the world in an effort to glean as much as I can from those with something to offer. At the same time, I hope that my small contributions on this blog can help others make vital or even trivial connections; maybe my experiences can do their part to add to the vast expanse of knowledge that is continually growing among the human race.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Digital Errors in a Digital Age
This week, one of the most visited topics in all of my classes was on the growing trend of blogging, texting, and posting replies to discussion boards. The debate that grew out of this was whether or not it is a good thing to accept errors in posts as the nature of the age, or if this trend marks something that needs to be fixed. On one side, it is brought out that blogs and responses are meant to be based on feelings and immediate impulses, and that the act of 'cleaning them up' would deteriorate their purpose. On the other side of the debate is the thought that language is currently being degraded, and that, if this were allowed to continue, the trend will grow until speech and even formal writing will have lost much of its richness and grammer. Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
