The existence of, and our subsequent reliance on technology in our everyday lives is undeniable. Whether it is texting, blogging, picture messaging, IMing, googling, emailing... the once very small road of communication (on that note: has anyone seen a payphone around?) has turned into a 10-lane super highway seemingly overnight. Information and people have become accessible in a way that is unlike anything before. Our younger generations have been inundated with technology since birth; it is a key tool for innumerable social interactions, communication, research, games, and so much more.
Harnessing this resource and implementing it in the classroom seems like a no-brainer. Why not incorporate the use of technology in the classroom? Why use something so vital to our day to day existence to our advantage? Technology affords us with the tools that can broaden the confines of the traditional classroom; we can place our students on the world stage.
I am particularly interested in the use of blogs in the classroom. It is an idea that, truthfully, didn't occur to me until we started learning about them in class. Now that we have discussed and created ones ourselves, I can see the many ways in which it could help our future students. Even in the small time we've had our blogs, we have connected with some of our classmates in a way that we certainly were not three weeks prior. But now- we can view and discuss ideas in a more personal, less threatening medium.
Imagine all the things you could learn about your students just by reading a blog they made for your class; how different and unique each blog would be...how ideas could be shared so effortlessly... how learning could take place in such a painless way...how creativity would thrive in such a place with endless possibility. Teaching with technology can only help foster and strengthen the learning process, and I'm excited to share and learn from my future students.
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You have experienced what I call the magic of teaching. It is like an a-ha moment when one idea leads to other ideas and more ideas and more... You are beginning to think like a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI agree that blogs are a great way to connect to students as a teacher and fellow classmates as student. As Richardson said, "blogging facilitates connections in ways that plain paper cannot." Just being able to connect to our fellow classmates through our blogs has opened up a whole new window of communication for myself. I know blogging will be a great tool to communicate with my students as a teacher, whether it is to talk about what they have learned or check up on an assignment. Most importantly blogging helps them communicate with other students from other schools and around the world.
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