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.