Reflections on Readings

Will Richardson stated in our class textbook that every teacher, student, and person with access to the Internet has the ability (or will have) to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet.

Describe how your own "body of knowledge" has been impacted by the resources we covered in this class. What is the most valuable new tool you will implement in your career and/or personal life, and why is it your choice?

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I realize that I have been very much in the dark about the technology we have discussed in this class. I did not know anything about blogs, wikis, or podcasts until this class. It has opened my eyes to a huge amount of new technology that I hope to integrate into my classroom use. My classroom blog will become the biggest tool I use this year. I hope to utilize a wiki page throughout the year as well. John Zurcher

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I was only vaguely familiar with many of the terms associated with these new tech tools. Now I feel that I can navigate through with at least the knowledge of what these tools can do. I believe blogs will be most appropriate for the age levels I teach. I plan on using this tool as an outreach from my classroom. I will encourage my students to access the blog site often and hopefully include their families as they get involved. Julie Price

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I have learned so much in this class about the new technology that is available to us. Of course, it is going to take time and practice to really know how to use this technology effectively and to be able to teach others how to use it as well. I am very new to this field. So I feel it is going to take me a while to really be proficient or close to proficient with the tecnology. Out of all the technology that I have larned thus far, I believe I will be using blogs first,and once I am pretty comfortable with this, I will be trying my hand on wikis and podcasting. I would use blogs to post lesson plans, links to resources that students will need or would be helpful in pusuing a business career later on. Of all the technology introduced so far, I feel more comfortable with blogs at the moment so this is the technology that I would try first.
Pepsy Nagel

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The amount of knowledge is more than the usual load.
What I need to do is try to sort through the blog…...into bloglines
Then we look at wikis vs. blogs add RSS feeds and podcasts and
realize I am one wired Mother!

With all these communication tools one must wonder about the
Quality of information being passed around. There are many
platforms to express one’s point of view…..are we now a nation of
experts?

I will share, probably through a blog all of these communication
tools and what has been done to facilitate our district technology
committee members’ use of these tools. It is likely, that
we will need to develop policies for the masses, but I can do some action research immediately.
I have in mind specific applications for each media. More fun!
Cheryl

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I am amazed at the many resources we have covered. I feel I have learned more then I thought possible in such a short time. I love how easy it is to gather info. When I was in college the net was very hard to use. Research was so time consumming you were limited to how much info. you could investigate by the amount of time you had plus you had to search the web at the library. Of course, time is still an issue but you can get so much more info. so fast and right from your home. My "body of knowledge" will expand by leaps and bounds with all the resources I now can access. The most valuable new tool we covered in this class for me is the wiki. I can see myself using wikis for both my classes and for my personal life, with my extended family. As soon as I have time I plan to finish creating a wiki to use in my classroom. I will use it as a class web site (if allowed.) I plan to have a page or two (or more) for each class. I will also use blogs. I will link a blog to the pages that way the students can learn and work with the read/write web idea. Of course, there will also be pictures of the student's art work, on the wiki, that could be shared in and out of the Art class around the school or even at home. I also, plan to use the video conferencing. I have gotten info. from a few musuems so far on their Fall programs and can't wait to try it. My students will be so excited about the technology it will be fun. Lisa

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This has been a great experience for me. I had limited knowledge of blogs, podcasts, RSS, and video conferences, but had no idea about how to use them in the classroom for something meaningful. Once we explored them, I got excited about using them...then we did the wikis, and it opened a whole new conceptual framework. Even though the class wiki was the central resource site, it wasn't until we created our own that I saw some real ways that I could change my classes and the way I will teach them. Now I do not just want to 'do the technology' just to do it, I see it becoming integral in the way I will be conducting classes from now on.