Oh, so that's what I could do ...

Throughout these past eight weeks, I have had several “Aha!” moments. My first was in using iMovie to create my first concept map. It is one of those standard features on my Mac that I never really played with or considered. I had fancy Adobe movie programs for splicing and editing. What I discovered is that the biggest and fanciest tool, may not be the best tool for the job. So I learned to keep it simple instead of letting myself get carried away with the technology and possibilities.

My next “Aha!” moment came during wiki week. As an open dialogue tool, I was very leary of the idea of using a wiki for anything but documentation. I thought it was too free a format for use in a classroom setting. I have been working in a wiki for years and so the wiki we used was one of the early wikis and is nowhere as simple and straight-forward as the new wikis we used on this class. So, in this instance, I learned that technology always moves forward, and even though you are familiar with a tool the technology to use that tool will move forward as well.

My biggest “Aha! Moment came in seeing all the ways that people within the class are planning to use their new skills and understanding. I’ve always used technology a great deal in my work, and being married to a techno-geek, I hear about technology advances all the time. I had come a bi complacent in my thinking about technology and in my understanding of how technology could be used. I thought I had a whole lot more figured out than I actually did. What was key in this whole process for me was hearing the ideas of others. While I plan to keep looking for and playing with technologies, I know that I also will work to keep sharing ideas with colleagues.

Still Watching the Oscars but finished this ...

I built my teaching plan keeping in mind two things.
First – a large number of my students do not have internet access at their homes, so they aren’t able to access many of these great tools from home. I don’t want to build a teaching plan that requires a heavy commitment of additional time online, beyond what is already required for their essays. I don’t think it would be a benefit for them.

Second – My primary goal has to be to teach my students to be better writers, so I can’t spend too much time introducing new technology.

I want my student to share their ideas and see what technology is out there. I don’t want to take hours away from writing instruction to spend it teaching how to make a wiki work. I do believe that I can create a page they will look at, and this project will introduce the possibilities of technology to my students. I think that if I add in the piece about having them text me their responses, I may draw them in based on a technology they ALL use (occasionally even in class).

When I started teaching, I got a little discouraged that the students didn’t have the technological skills base to put some of the things that I had hoped to use into practice. I didn’t think technology was going to be something I could end up using in my classroom. Instead, I think I can make it an opportunity to introduce new technologies to students and to build their familiarity with technology without the pressure of making it an assignment. I would rather intrigue them with cool new things, than annoy them with assignments.

State of the internet

I stole this from my husband's facebook page, but it's a good one:
http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/state-internet/