My Delicious!

My new Wiki!

I had a couple of blogger accounts that I used as creative outlets to share my writings with friends. I set up a webpage through class jump to help keep students and parents aware of assignments and tests/ quizzes. This was helpful. I think using blogger professionally will be a great asset for my team taught classes. I am a special education team teacher in many different content areas and I can see myself using blogger to communicate assignment and content to make it more assessable to all students. I am anxious to play around with blogger features and other tools out there to find ways to clarify curriculum for ALL students. Since I am pulled in many directions as a team teacher working in 4 different subject areas with 4 different teacher, I feel like I am inevitably less accessable to my students. This will allow me to communicate with all students and their parents. I like the idea of using blogger within the professional community as well. I think it is a great way to reflect and hear peoples take on things. With a teachers schedule, it can be difficult to sit down with cohorts and discuss the trials and successes within our classrooms. Blogger allows us to do this in a more convenient setting.
I liked using the RSS feed. Being a busy mom, teacher, and now grad student, I can really appreciate being able to keep up on up to date information about my profession in the most timely way possible. It took me some time to figure out how to upload the feeds for our group. I was at a complete loss of what to do. Even my husband, a very tech savvy guy, was not sure. Once I figured it out it makes perfect sense. In essence, I have used the feeds (without realizing it) by "liking" certain pages on Facebook, which allows me to follow stories in my areas of interest.
I feel that blogs and RSS feeds would fit into the exhibit category because students are able to interact with the blog through viewing other peoples thoughts and experiences through other people's feeds, but also apply what they are learning by expressing their understanding through journaling. Students would be able to reflect not only through words however, but through pictures, diagrams, and movies.
An imaginative use for RSS feeds and blogs: In an English class, depending on the curriculum for the class, students could follow feeds such as song of the day, picture of the day, photo of the day...and use their blogs to discuss why this item was chose, how it makes them feel, what is reminds them of, etc. Assignment can be extended to having the students create their ___ of the day and make it a part of their blog.

I agree with Postman that bringing technology into the classroom for the sake of technology is not going to solve the problems in education. However, it is esential to bring technology into the classroom because students need to be prepared as citizens of the 21st century. They need a strong understanding of how technology works and how it will apply to them when they become a part of the workforce. The number of jobs out there that do not require some technological skill is dwindling away.
Allowing technology into schools does not mean allowing students to send text messages to friends during lecture, or listening to an ipod while the teacher lectures, but more like having students send a text message to the teacher overviewing the lesson of the day, or allowing the student to play a relevant song to add meaning to their presentation. Using technology with thought and relevence and inducing connections with students is what I gleaned from the Reigeluth article.
As educators, it is our responsibility to keep on top of the most up to date research in methodolgy and this most definetly includes technology. Technology developments are continuously changing and that means we need to be kept aware if we want to maintain relevance in our classroom.