Week 4: Blogs, Harris interview

I am feeling more confident and alot more comfortable with the content of this course. I must say at first I was, and still to some degree a little hesitant of the abilities of the web 2.0 tools. I am quite a private person so opening myself up on the computer is a little scary, but I can't be afraid of new thing, just jump in!!
The Harris interview was very interesting and aligned in many ways to my ideas of how we should be handling or dealing with the new technology available to our students. As he said, "sticking our heads in the sand" is not the answer. We need to accommodate and find ways to integrate and use the tools that are available today in an educationally relevant manner. We need to remember to be flexible and allow for mistakes and mishaps, because they will happen. We need to approach these situations not so much with fear but as learning opportunities.
I like the way he described the role of the TL , one who guides the way through the technology chaos. I find a little humour in this because of its truth. There is and will be a little chaos, but I think that controlled chaos brings about change, and that is what it is all about, change. The times they are a changin'!! We need to be prepared on how to handle it. Education is the answer, inform ourselves and try to keep current.
My next goal is to set up a blog for my school library, I know that I can do it, the only problem is finding the time.

week 3: voicethread worked

Wow I did it. A few things that I would need to play around with, but a really neat tool. I can see myself using this in the library for research topics, and I think the kids would think that the sound of the teachers voice recorded would be really cool. Well my kids thought that it was cool. I was amazed at how quickly I could figure it out. Now obviously I am not a pro but I could complete the task without too much difficulty. I would love to see students fool around with this tool. It sure would capture their attention and keep them focussed. Thanks to this course I found a new tool to engage the students!!

voicethread continued

Ok I think that this took me a little under an hour to do which for me is fantastic. Some of you may be getting a good laugh that it took me that long but you know we all need a little amusement in our lives. I am actually not even sure if it all worked correctly.
This is the link to my voicethread, I will post it and then try it myself. let's see...
http://voicethread.com/share/879393/ Wish me luck!!

Week 3 My voicethread experience

Allright I have no idea what I am in for but here I go. First I need to google what a voicethread is and then attempt to do one myself. Sounds easy enough except for the fact that my four year old is really wanting me to sit and color with her and I am trying to get this done before I have to run off to the next hockey game. Perhaps this will be a work in progress. Who am I kidding of course it is going to be a work in progress. I will keep you up to date.

Week 3 response to Prensky

Ironically I had this very situation come up for me this week. My son who is in grade 7, has always struggled in math ,particularly computation ,and he was very painfully doing his homework. Many frustrating moments went by when I finally said, just use the calculator! He informed me that he was not supposed to, now don't get me wrong I do believe in knowing the basics, but is it not our job to teach students the most effective method in obtaining a desirable result? My son knew how to complete the question but was getting caught up in the computation of it. Today we all use calculators because we can, they are invented and they are the most convenient, effective means to find the answer.
Prensky in my opinion is right, we can not hold on to the beliefs or understandings of the past. We use what we have learned historically to guide us towards the future. Avoiding or dismissing what our children are faced with today would be doing them a great disservice. We need to keep up and in so doing teach them how to navigate and manipulate the new tools at their disposal today. I realize that "new" is sometimes scary but teaching is all about finding new ways, new paths and inspiring youth not dismissing them.
On a side note, an EA in our school came into the library and asked me if TL's still taught the Dewey decimal system. A conversation about how times are changing and that how out school collections of non-fiction just can not keep up ensued. Dewey is not relevant to the students today because they have a wealth of information at their fingertips. Kids want to learn what is relevant to them, life is about them, so I think we need to focus on their needs. No matter how daunting it is for us to forge into the unknown we must do so in order to best guide our learners be it students or teachers or parents.

Week 2 iGoogle page

Ok I am going to try to add my igoogle page, I was able to take a snapshotnow let's see if I can post it on my blog.

Yes I did it, in less than 10 minutes, the challenge will be, will I remember how to do it tomorrow, have to wait and see.

week 2 A Whole New World

Just spent some time playing with Touchgraph, amazing, can't wait to show it to my grade 7 class, I am pretty sure that they have not used this yet so I may actually be able to impress them with my new "cool" feature. I love that it provides the link with your search.
I also customized my very own igoogle page, took me half the night but wow, love it!! My kids don't believe me when I say that I am doing my homework, looks like too much fun they say.
I must say that this course is reinforcing my decision to not put my very meager funds towards the purchase of non-fiction books. My small school collection can not and will never be able to compete with the mass information so easily available to this generation. Teaching the Dewey Decimal system seems so archaic, do they really need to know this?

I find myself or my school district in a very ironic situation. According to Christopher Harris's article, particularly, "where do we go from here" the general idea is that Librarians are crucial to aiding and supporting the use of the new technologies available. Our school district recently purchased laptops for the intermediate students and teachers in order to facilitate the teaching of new technology, the librarians, however, were not included. A little bizarre! We are supposed to embrace and encourage it but please do so without the hardware. I believe that this was a major oversight on behalf of the district but what can you do. I will continue to do as I always have and make the best of it, teach what I can with what I have. My point being that I agree with Harris and there is no denying the change, we need to move on and get with it and try to stay with it as best we can. Oh yeah and let's not forget to have fun, make mistakes and learn!

Week 2: My thoughts on Google Doc

I just experimented with the google doc that was set up for us to try. Really interesting. I overheard the grade 7 teacher in my school discussing how he was using this with his students, and quite honestly I can tell you that it sounded like he was speaking in a foreign language. My unfounded fear of the unknown immediately caused me to tune him out and continue about my business. Well I am proud to report that I think I could now participate in that conversation and actually have something intelligilbe to add. All humour aside, I think that this tool is fantastic for encouraging the reluctant speakers that we all have in our classes. The students who would love to share their thoughts but are too shy or reluctant to participate in an open forum would really latch on to this tool. Public speaking is not for everyone and this tool seems to address this quite nicely. Once again however, we need to remember to do all the teaching that would be required to ensure the effectiveness of this tool. Students would need to be reminded to be just as respectful and appropriate when corresponding on-line, as they would be in the classroom. Students need some reminders that they are not anonymous when they are on-line, I think some tend to be a little more brazen when they are in front of the screen then they would be if they were in front of the class. Great tool though, lots of possibilities! need to do more experimenting with it!
Tomorrow I will attempt some reading and hopefully have some very insightful comments to share with you all until then goodnight.

Week 1: Hallelujah!!!

Ok I think that I am getting a handle on this, my teenaged son wil be very impressed I am sure. Time for a coffee break my head is swirling!

Week 1: Blogging headache

My first day off in a while as I had been working full time until Christmas and what am I doing but trying to figure out how all this blogging works. I will be very happy when I have the hang of this

Week 1: first time

This is the first time that I have done a blog, what a learning curve!