Epilogue

Tom McHale has the computer as the centerpiece for everything he does.  I am not even close to that.  I feel good when I introduce a piece of technology into my instruction, but it's usually a small component of the lesson.  I'm slightly envious of Tom's style of teaching in that he can accomplish so much from one seat in such a short span of time.  I wouldn't want my students in front of a screen all of the time...because I think they do need to develop communication skills that are of the more face-to-face variety, but so much information gets shared and so many conversations can occur when you provide online forums.  With chat rooms, everyone gets a voice, and nobody has to yell to be heard!

I think I'd be nervous about running the whole class through an IPAD in that the distractability factor can be so high.  It's hard to monitor students if they are always online.  I guess if they are accomplishing the specific tasks that I've planned, then I shouldn't worry about it so much, but I think I would like to have more control over their computer usage.  I want my instruction to be less teacher-centered, but I'm not ready to hand over the reigns completely!

Upon finishing Richardson's text, I feel motivated and, to some extent, pressured, to incorporate more technology into my instruction.  I have never shied away from trying new practices or equipment, but the pressure comes from trying to do too much all at once....especially after doing too little for too long.  I think I like the idea of introducing a couple new technological components at a time.  I'll start with the class Wiki for our novel which I'm so excited about.  I will then try to set up some sort of Blogosphere so that the kids can discuss the book online.  I'd also love to try to post student writing and gain feedback from classmates online.  Perhaps I could then expand it to getting feedback from other classrooms.  Eventually, I'll feel comfortable (as I'm sure the writers themselves will) launching writing to the universe for anyone and everyone to see.  I love the fact that this could really strengthen a currently weak connection I feel between home and school. 

Ch 10  What it all means

"If we fail to graduate students who are not able to create, sustain, and participate in these networks in safe, ethical, and effective ways, we've done them a disservice" (pg. 149).  I think this quote really hits home.  It's not just a good idea to introduce technologies into the classroom, it's essential.  I have always been a "sure, I'll try that" type of guy, but now I must shift to a more of a "Yes, I will use that" type of guy.  It's not enough to just familiarize myself with blogging, screencasting, etc., but I need to be able to put it into practice.  I feel very confident that I will be able to utilize components of this class quite easily, and quite soon! 

One of my undergrad education professors once said, "Teachers are great thieves."  Well, with open source content, we don't need to think of it as a robbery, we can think of it as a collaboration.  When we borrow material, chances are we'll tweak it, and then we might repost it to the world for the next person. 

If two heads are better than one, then a million editors is certainly better than one.  That's what I gained from the section on Wikipedia, and it applies to documents posted in other mediums. 

In terms of using the material in Richardson's book in my classroom, I have made my professional goal this year to incorporate more technology into my lesson planning.  Specifically, I will produce a Tuck Everlasting Wiki page to use with my students.  When I applauded a 6th grade teacher for her wiki-novel page, she said that she was glad to learn about the technology, but more importantly, the kids become so much more engaged in the learning process when the technology was utilized in the lesson plans.  That's my ultimate goal; to increase student involvement and make learning more student-centered and less teacher-driven.  Technology will allow me to be more of a facilitator than a dictator.  Dictatorship is not for me.

Ch 8  Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

I now have a much better understanding of what Podcasting is.  I think I tried to pretend I knew what it was all about, but never really had a clue...that's a current theme in my life.

Podcasting is a basic way to host your own show!  It's blogging with audio and video so that you are narrating instead of typing.  I think this is less complicated than I once thought.  In fact, I already have all of the necessary supplies...mainly a laptop with a camera and microphone.  I already have an iTunes account if I want to submit Podcasts like Richardson suggests. 

This could be a great idea for student presentations whether it's book reports or reviews, reciting poetry, or discussing a research project on a social studies topic.  This would really encourage them to practice, and I believe I'd see an increase in fluency.  Rehearsed readings are great for working on intonation, rate, and eye contact.

Screencasting seems great for giving instructions for a "How to" writing.  First and foremost, I think I would use it to model for students how to navigate the computer to use the program I want them to use or to find the websites that I think will be beneficial.  I could also see this being a good idea to use during next year's open house for parents.  I could screencast directions for operating Powerschool or my teacher webpage (soon to be a wiki???).

Ch 7   Fun with Flickr

The digital camera might be one of the most amazing inventions of all-time.  The fact that I can use my phone to take a decent picture and see the results instantaneously is awesome.  Sure the quality will never equal that of an actual camera, but my phone is always on me and I can take the shot and email or text it out within seconds.
 
In terms of the classroom, I love that I can digitally photograph my students, but I need to be careful what I post online and make sure that I have parental permission when posting them online.  I think I'd be more careful doing that type of thing on the classroom website or Wiki, than to an open blog forum.  As Richardson states, there are 1-2 million pictures uploaded to Flick daily, and it is not possible to completely police the inappropriateness of what might happen via that site.
 Fortunately, Flickr provides an option for creating private groups where I could share pictures with only selected people (students, parents, teachers, and administrators).
On the flip side, parents would love to see images or video of what's going on in the classroom and the school.  This would be a great way to strengthen the home-school connection.  Flickr is a free site (as long as the volume of pictures is reasonable), and it seems pretty easy to use.  I have always had my wife post our pictures that we have on our digital camera, but I think I can now take hold of the operation after reading this chapter.  I think I will start visually documenting the classroom more as well.  With our system of evaluation, we need to document our steps toward achieving our goals.  Taking pictures and posting them via Flick seems like a great way to document and to show that I am trying to incorporate technology into the classroom.

I know the students would love the ability to annotate the pictures they post.  They could create living comic strips!

Ch 6  The Social Web

The internet and social/collaborative websites are redefining education.  It's not just the tools and technology that are evolving, but the manner in which we need to teach is changing as well. 
Every time I read an IEP or a note from a parent, I hear about kids being visual learners.  Computers allow us to provide visual learning for all children.  There are so many opportunites for interactive learning when online that education naturally becomes more student-centered than teacher-directed.  While I'm sure there will always be a time and place for the lecture, it's role is being diminished more and more each year.  It makes you wonder what a teacher's job security might look like in 50 years.

I don't "tweet" and don't really see the sensation if someone already has a Facebook account.  It seems like it has less capability with picture posting and you are limited in your text amount.  I would be naive, however, to pretend that it isn't a world wide product though.  Students seem to be moving away from Facebook and toward Twitter these days, as I was told that Facebook is more for adults.  In any event, Twitter has the power to unite people from all over.  Richardson's citing of the election in Iran shows the relevance and potency of Twitter.  Like no time in history, people can communicate instantaneously.  Richardson says that over 1 billion people are online. That's an unbelievable number to me. We have the capability to connect to people in every corner of the world.
If social media can ignite "flash mobs", it also has the power to create large scale political upheaval.  Protests are born on the web.  Unfortunately, so is terrorism.  We are reminded that the web can be used for so many positive activities, but it can also be used in damaging ways as well.

I love the idea of Diigo and could certainly see myself using it in my calssroom just as it was used in the book.  I love the virtual sticky note! It's a good place to share information, but more importantly, I see the benefit in the organization of the information that Diigo allows.

Ch 5

Ch 5 RSS

Whoever invented the "aggregator" was a genius.  Rather than searching for the links that interest me, the links find me.  They are continuously updated in one area for me.  That is a huge time saver!  This reminds me of searching for Flights and Hotels on Kayak.com because they combine all of the searches for your criteria from various sites such as: Orbitz, Priceline, etc. 

RSS is a way to elimanate all of the garbage from information that we sift through searching various topics of interest.  The aggregator brings us the relevant information from a variety of places.  While I imagine it gets overwhelming to try and keep up with all of the sites that you subscribe to, I feel this is ideal for student research projects.  Kids can use multiple sources without having to sift through pages of irrelevant information.  With all of the information that is being streamed and that students will need to gather, I have realized that the ability to "skim" texts is so important.  If a child struggles with comprehension, then going through lengthy web pages is difficult.   It's even harder for them to pull out pertinent facts.  Students need to be able to understand material once they have read it carefully, but more importantly, in the 21st century, students need to be able to pick out key details in a text while reading quickly since the volume of material is so large.  Skimming will be a skill I work on more and more with my students.

Ch 4   Wikis

I used to think that wikis were not very accurate, but if Apple is calling Wikipedia one of the most accurate encyclopedias out there, then I guess they are legit.  I guess I assumed there was a lot of people posting their opinion as fact, but because everyone is a potential editor, whatever false information gets posted, usually gets corrected by those who are more knowledgeable on that subject matter.  The fact that everyone is an editor really empowers students.  I've found that most kids love that feeling of control and responsibility.  In addition, when writers and researchers know that their writing is going to be viewed and critiqued by numerous others, they are more apt to take their work seriously and make sure that they "cross their Ts and dot their Is". 

I could definitely see myself using a Wiki page for a book discussion in ELA or a research project in Social Studies.  At first, I would definitely want to limit the access to my students.  As we become more familiar and confident with the process, I would try opening it up for all to see on the net.  I would encourage other 5th grade teachers to direct their students to the blogs so that my students could see what feedback/revision suggestions might be applicable.  The 5th grade team would create a network of revisionists, and I would probably mandate that everyone comments or edits a certain number of Wikis for a participation grade.