Ok... My technology post is all below. In the spirit of this assignment, if you wish to hear and see a digital elf reading the first part of my blog, which is highlighted in RED, then klick on the link below
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=8342920&height=267&width=200
Technology always seems like a worthwhile topic of discussion because it changes so rapidly and always warrants updating. I do not consider my self to be very “techie”, but I have really enjoyed some tech aspects of this class. I think that the WIKI is a great resource and it seems that the blogs have been a great tool for communication.
There were a couple of points that were brought up in our class Jigsaw activity that I found very relevant and would like to expand on a bit. The first point came from the I-PED article and dealt with the idea of critical literacy, specifically, how to teach kids to be critical of the validity of their online sources of information. I won’t regurgitate the contents of the article here, but the main idea is that before cutting the kids loose to search for information on the internet, we need to devote some class time to teaching kids some specific ways to evaluate websites. As we were discussing this topic, Jim commented on a website that is really helpful for teaching critical literacy skills. The website gives a long chemical name for something and then goes on to warn the readers of all of the potential problems and life threatening health concerns associated with this chemical. However, the website has a humorous twist and is a great teaching tool because in the end you can reveal to the students that the long chemical that the website is referring to is actually just a name for normal water. The moral of the story is that kids need to be critical thinkers and observers when it comes to evaluating content on the web. The website is WWW.DHMO.ORG…and Jim has linked it at the bottom of the technology section of the wiki.
The second point from our discussions that I really liked came from the article on blogging. The given scenario was about a blogging pen pal type set up between some students from different schools. The article explained that the motivation and the work of the kids was much better when the kids had had a face to face interaction with their pen pal. So , personal interaction does still matter.
I hope that you enjoyed being talked at by a female elf with a beard
Hey, good to see avatars like that. Like you, I am not terribly tech-savvy, though I look forward to using some of the tools that we went over today. One concern that arises in my mind concerning technology in the classroom is its overuse, or its unjustified use. I think that some teachers and administrators get taken in by shiny new toys and lose track of the purpose of a lesson. From the technologies today, which ones do you see yourself utilizing in your normal lessons? Do you think that there are any areas of the classroom experience that should not be connected to technology -for example, should journaling continue to be a pencil and paper venture? Is your school's administration receptive to technology? Have a good rest of your summer!
ReplyDeleteSo Jamie, I clicked the link and saw the gnome but it just kept saying "t" which I found very amusing by the way. I am glad that you liked the DHMO site. I think it can be a great tool too. I think Derek's point is very valid and needs to be constantly addressed. A lot of the tools that we explored are "bright and shiny" and one can be easily tempted to use them for the sake of using them and not are tools to enhance the purpose of the lesson or what you are trying to get your students to learn. I think that Derek's question about journaling with pencil and paper is interesting and other students have commented about the lost art of handwriting. I'm on the fence about this and haven't come to a position yet. I do see the struggle with legibility with math work and students are having more and more difficult reading their own writing, however, I also see the other side where blogging, discussion boards, and social media are similar to journaling but have wider appeal and can be more public. So, I don't know how to answer Derek's question other than that we have to remember that our students have been born into a digital world and have no reference to a time without these tools and technology so it may be really difficult to get them to see the value of handwriting or looking up words in dictionary when everything the need to access is a tap away. Thanks for the post and the attempt to use Voki :) - Jim
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