With respect to our first assignment this semester, I looked through level of the suggested blogs. I am not someone who reads blogs, so I must say that I have found out that I do not think that I am missing anything. Honestly, I find reading blogs annoying. Although, the blog that I finally settled on "The Innovative Educator" was the most interesting.
I found the ideas for incorporating technology into the classroom inventive and and a great way to reach a whole host of students. For example, the ideas mentioned for use with ELL Students are some that I personally would probably never have thought of using, but they are wonderful. Google Translate, Microsoft Word - Word Talk, and Google Text are great tools to use with someone who is learning English or any language for that matter. In addition, I think these tools would be great to use with any student, especially students who are having trouble with writing, reading or learning another language.
As for Blogging and Facebook, I see the benefits of using them to get student to write and communicate with others, but I must say that I question the safety of these internet tools.
All in all, I found this blog to be very infromative and it provided a list of wonderful resources for teachers.
With respect to the article "Teddy Bears Go Blogging", I enjoyed the article. Again I think this article, like the blog I read, provided great ideas for helping students learn and for incorporating the use of technology in the classroom. However, the above technologies are great for in the classroom and for the students who have use of a computer at home, but what about those students who are unable to use a computer at home or those who do not even have a computer at home? The use of a computer for learning could easily leave out a large amount of students if you are working in a school that is located in a district that does not have these resources available.
As for the artilce entitled "Who Are Today's Learners?", I was not able to read the text due to a problem with Adobe (a typical technology problem). Anyway, I emailed Hugh and asked him to email me a copy of the article, perhaps I will be able to do something with it so that I am able to view the text. I finally viewed the article. Agin, my concern is that not all students have access to technology.
Above please find the two digital pictures I uploaded. They are pictures of two of my animals, aren't they cute!
You mentioned the issue of online safety - Sherry's blogging project provides a good opportunity to actively teach responsible online behavior to children.
ReplyDeleteWith the issue of access to technology, what did you think of the study that Greenhow cited?
Glad you enjoyed "The Innovative Educator" - lots of interesting ideas there. Blogs are a great source of fresh and relevant ideas for teachers.