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.