Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Web 2.0 Discussion Group Book Review
In Will Richardsons book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", Chapter 1 is about the Read/Write Web. As the use of the internet continues to change, more educators are learning how to utilize the resources for classes. As schools ask educators to step out of their comfort zones and try new and challenging things with their students, the need for training increases along with a need for time to utilize what is learned by the teacher. What catches your attention in the first chapter of this book? If you click the title above you will link to Will Richardsons website.
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14 comments:
I feel like the last dinosaur standing!!!! I am definitely "old school". How can I continue to reach my students with methods from the 70's??? They are definitely from this millenieum. They can't stand not being connected. They are constantly trying to text or read them. I don't even know what our school policy is on student participation in blogs, wikis etc other than signing the acceptable internet use policy.
After teaching courses for Aurora University for several years I can definately say that you are not the only teacher that feels this way. Some of the students are far ahead of many when it comes to the use of technology while others are behind us. The challenge becomes teaching to all levels of students while feeling behind in technology ourselves.
I believe that my knowledge in the use of technology is based on the willingness to try things and be comfortable making mistakes. When asked how I have learned the different uses of the internet and other tools I often reply, "I have just made more mistakes than others and learned something new each time." When working with classes I have always been willing to tell the students up front that I'm not an expert and that we will learn things together as we work through a project. While the teacher used to be the "expert" in the class now the role when usint technology is more of a facilitator instead. If students know up front that there may be challenges faced by even the teacher they may have the patience to learn something new themselves.
Jay, you are not the only dino out there, I am overwhelmed myself. However, after reading Chapter 1 I have discovered two positives. First, on page 4 Dan Gillmor stated something that really made sense concerning technology and journalism, "if my readers know more than I do (which they do), I can include them in the process of making my journalism better". Same goes for us as educators! If students know more than we do (which they do), we can include them in the process of making our teaching better. The second sign of relief I found was on page 5 when Richardson stated that this is a "hugely challenging" time to be an educator because the world is changing so fast around us. So we are not alone in our journey to keep up with today's youth.
Richardson makes an excellent point to support Jay and Meg's frustration with new technology. As an educational system we "have been very, very slow to react."
As an educational system we have continued to use traditional practices in the classroom while our students "are using much more complex and digitial information" to learn without the guidance of adults and educators.
Students are using a vast array of technology these days outside of school and when they come to school they are told they cannot use these same tools. This I feel is the main reason why we, as educators, are so far behind our students. WE simply do not use and apply technology in the same way as our students, creating a division in our classrooms. I am fairly comfortable with these technologies because I use them and experiment with them on my own. This is the key to understanding the technology our students use daily. My use of technology stems from a personal interest and not because of necessity...
At some point though, educators need to make this a necessity or we will all be dinosaurs.
How will we have students identify themselves so that readers know whose views are whose? Is this important? How much has changed since Richardson wrote this book? Is the 2nd ed. much different or is he stuck on the Ellis Island of the land to which he immigrated? Jay, I gave my mom a computer when she turned 80. She did not want it. Two years later she was publishing a magazine on it. In 1600 it was still possible for a person to read the collective written wisdom of mankind. Today, one would first have to get rid of all of the writing that is not wisdom - an editing job that would require several lifetimes. Mea Culpa.
The description of young people as "Digital natives," and the rest of us as "Digital immigrants," seemed to be very true... they have grown up with the WWW, and all the new technologies are easy for them to master. In the toolbox items listed in Chapter 1, I was already familiar with blogs, and am just learning about wikis... both of those have a lot of promise for education. As long as we make sure students are safe, by warning them not to post personal information, I believe we should start using some of them with our students... we will probably end up learning a lot from them, as Meg said!
For most of my carreer, as short as it has been, it seems I have expected my students to learn in the environment I have set up and controlled. Yes, we differentiate as best we can and we try to make things as interesting, fun, and engaging in the classroom. We "try" to give them those wings to soar and say "I know you all have different interests, tallents, and learning styles. I want you to explore those. BUT YOU MUST CATCH ON BY FRIDAY'S TEST!"
For those of you who are a bit nervous of getting "plugged in," Richardson does offer that as more people get stronger connections, we will begin to see "easier tools" with which to create these online environments in which our students can interact. There are places set up online where you can choose the layouts, fonts, colors, and intereactive capabilities for blogspots.
On page 8, Richardson says, "we must tap into the potentials these tools give us for learning.In a time when education is changing drastically, we do need to meet them half way. Not for the sake of showing them how "hip" and "cool" we are, but to truly use the way they search and learn to our advantage.
I am new to the this group. I too feel as if I am "old school" and this is my second time in the class. I think this will be of get use to all students and with the right safty policy in place it will be great. I hope this time I can get more into the technology and just have fun making mistakes to learn from.
It's nice to know that they have a catagory for me...."Digital Immigrant". Hate reading through the text and see that they have you pegged. I don't think the dinosaur's will rule to world again, but identifing the ways to advance our evolution will stop us from becoming extinct. So in the fact I do not feel as much like a dinasaur but more as the "immigrant" finding something new.
Couple of thoughts after reading everyone's postings. I'm late in getting to this. At 36 I thought I was relativly connected technology wise (I'm NOT). I am playing the part of shoe cobbler to my children's technology education. Finally, could part of the reason behind the slow pace of schools to adopt technology is 1. the cost and 2. the speed at which technologies become obsolete?
Before starting my teaching career my wife would give out our home phone number to her parents/students and make herself avaliable almost anytime of the day to assist students. I was not happy about this and thought it to be an invasion of our privacy. Despite the number of times she attempted to explain the reasoning and importance I never warmed to the thought. Faced with simular circumstance, particularly in my Accounting classes I recently gave my cell phone number to my students. Several we're working at home and becoming frustrated with the material and the progression of the class was beginining to slow. Something I was not willing to accept.
Veiwing the options presented by Richardson on pg 8 of Ch. 1 the possiblity of utilizing a blog/wiki to assist in getting the students help would be a viable option. Given the level of connectivity of students these could allow more student to student tutoring. It could even be utilized as a formative assessment by veiwing the different posting and gauging the level of understanding to the material. The vision in my mind is of students utilizing their smart phones (g1 phone/i phone) to connect with the class blog concerning their questions.......I know it's only a dream, but hey you never know.
Mike, that may not be a dream. It may already be in place at some of the schools. I know that last year many of the teachers here strated blogs and told their students about them amd used them in their classroom.
After reading everyone's comments, I have a little different take on the book. I don't really feel like a dinosaur. I have been using the internet since it first came out. I was the first one of my friends to have hi-speed internet. Even saying this, I still have things to learn and I am excited to begin. For example, I had never heard of RSS before reading chapter 1. I am excited to begin utilizing these things in my classroom.
I have and use most of the tools that Will Richardson talks about in the first chapter, and the part I'm excited to get to in the book is how exactly I can use this in my classroom and it be effective for them. So many times there are great ideas for technology but they are never exactitude in the correct way.
I completely agree with Meg, and with Dan Gillmor about letting our students teach us and other students how to use these tools that they are such experts on using. The students might end up being the best educator for these new tools.
I have only read 2/3's of the chapter but I wanted to comment so far-
All of the access to technology is wonderful. I know there are people/students out there who do nothing but spend time on-line. I'm not one of them. When I'm out of school, I seldom touch a computer. I will use it to find info if I'm traveling or to go on a virtual shopping trip.
On the other hand- having such instant access to resourse is an awesome opportunity. I remember what is was like to do research the old way-trips to the library, looking through multiple books for info-I would never want to go back to that. All of the modes of communication available help link people with similar interests- I just would never sit down and start typing about a bike trip I did or a hike-that's me.
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