In watching the videos of last week, the biggest thing that struck me was the idea that students are in school preparing for jobs that do not even exist yet. How, then, do teachers prepare students? I cannot imagine that my teachers ever envisioned the state of technology today. At the same time, though, I do feel prepared to handle it (with lots of help from the technology staff!). Perhaps it is that whole learning-how-to-learn concept. But I also don't think we can not just throw up our hands and say we can't keep up. Because of how kids operate today, technology is a way to meet and engage them where they are. Of course, where they are is often way beyond where I am. I do feel frustrated at times when I am trying to do something technological, make a mistake, and all the kids start telling me what to do. On the other hand, they love it - and they can almost always solve the problem.
I had a few 2.0-based ideas last week: having kids do on-line discussions of a lit. book in blog format, podcasting class discussions so that parents could engage kids in discussions that began in class, having a huge ongoing curriculum/resource map of everything that is being taught in every part of the school, getting kids to read part of their stories in a podcast and coming up with images to accompany them. Last week, I had kids do podcasts for the first time, with the eighth graders teaching the seventh graders (so I didn't have to know how to do it). This week, the eighth graders will be podcasting part of their stories. One thing I'm learning is that I've got to count on glitch-time when I start a new project - just expect it, rather than being surprised and frustrated by it.
Okay, how do you spellcheck these posts???
There should be a little spellcheck button at the top of the text box you are typing in. Also, I have installed a Firefox add-on that highlights misspelled words (and gives me correct spellings if I control-click on the word) whenever I am typing something within the Firefox browser. If you are interested, you can do a search for "firefox spellbound."
ReplyDeleteHey there!
ReplyDeleteI too was pretty speechless after the video that gave all of those facts about technology and kids. I have memories of "computer lab" from high school where we sat in front of huge screens typing in "If X+Y?///45 then J" or something like that. Dozens of these lines would result in a tree on the screen or something...very useful indeed. It is an entirely different game now in that the things kids do with technology really do enhance their learning and engage them more. The involvement they have with technology will help them succeed in school and out there in the big world. I am still pretty old-school minded about kids and computer time, however, I am slowly realizing that it is not about me (surprise surprise) it is about what our students need TODAY that will help them TOMORROW.
Great ideas, Jennifer! I love the idea of the school-wide curriculum map.
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