Last (school) year, we had a technology guru come to speak to those teachers that wanted to listen. He spoke about this thing called "Web 2.0". He got me excited and animated, and that is one of the reasons that I find myself in the T.E.A.M. program. I have a good, solid technology background, but things like social networking, blogs, WIKIs and the like didn't exactly blow me away. I understand how they help our students learns skills that are truly relavant today, and provide them with a basis for the competencies that they will need for tomorrow. They also provide a positive social outlet using the internet as a tool. With all of the talk of internet misuse nowadays, it is nice to hear that it still can be a good thing for interaction.
That being said... I now have my students blogging. They are commenting on curriculum related topics that we are exploring in our classroom. They are commenting and interacting with each other's writing. They are excited to be part of this, and they are amazed that our cluster map shows people in Europe, Asia and Australia checking out what they are writing.
We are currently doing online and print research related to a unit in our science curriculum. Students will be gathering information, organizing it and presenting it. We will be putting it together into a class vodcast. The students are obviously very excited about this.
One might be wondering "What the heck does this have to do with the title? This seems like it is working!" Here goes... I have seen quite a few student blogs outside of my classroom. I have seen students constructing WIKIs and the like. My big challenge is "How does this fit into my curriculum???" Encouraging social interaction and broadening thinking are definately things that I want for students, but as a classroom teacher, I am unfortunately (or is it fortunately) working within the constraints of the district and state curriculum. I made a post on my Classroom 2.0 page called "I'm ready to blog, but what about my students and my curriculum?" This feeling still stays. I have put together what I believe is a good, solid project that uses the internet among other resources. It will be neatly packaged using technology, but then.... the silence might come out again! "What next???" as I reach my hands towards the sky? How can I dissect my curriculum to find another golden egg? Blogging simply for the sake of blogging.. what good is that? So you can proudly proclaim to other educators that you are using the technology? How is it fitting into the curriculum? How is it improving the academic and/or social life of your students? Podcasts are cool, but how is it improving anything? What is it doing? Where does it fit in? Anyone can record a student narrating something and then publish it. It takes a teacher to provide a path for learning somewhere in the fun... away from the record button. That's what I am thinking about. What do you think?
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6 comments:
Adam, your students are fortunate to have a teacher like you. You're obviously excited about teaching and incorporating technology into the curriculum.
Wow Susan. That is a very generous compliment.. one that somewhat blew me away.. thank you!
your picture is too funny!
I don't know Adam... maybe you can ask George for some tech advice! I think you are doing a great job...so much exciting stuff can be done with tech and all curriculums, unfortunately i think it just takes time to incorporate and seeing what works. And since we also need to go pumpkin picking with our families, just adding a little every year might be the best option!
I love the probing nature of this log entry, Adam. You don't say you wonder about this from the outside. You jumped in and are now immersed in it. You raised questions before you began and raise them again now. I hope everyone in our team will comment here.
A few thoughts:
We do not ever want to use technology just for the sake of technology or because others like it. We only want to use it where it serves our needs.
We are just beginning to see the impact of the social dimensions of using these technologies. We know that students who "engage" and are "excited" to learn, to communicate, the express themselves, to listen to others (and... probably all the habits of mind here), learn more in the various curriculum areas. They want to participate and to learn.
Thanks, Adam.
Interesting statement I came across when reading my rss feeds this morning...
"It's web 2.0 to us - but it's web 1.0 to our students."
Think about it...
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