Group items tagged

It is NOT Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, or any other online community that is the problem. It is the people who are out of touch with today's youth.

All I can say is AMEN! I blogged about this last year, as a matter of fact, because it ticks me off that we would have all of this great technology, but NOT use it for expanded educational opportunities that we might not have otherwise had. I love extended the teachable moment beyond the "year" that I'm given with a set of students. Just because they've come and gone doesn't mean my responsibility to continue to teach them if the opportunity presents itself is over. I am a teacher. Not from 7:30 to 2:30. Not just on the weekdays. Not just in my classroom. I am a teacher ALL. OF. THE. TIME. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, whether physical or virtual. We should be more worried about the teachers (and critics) who aren't nearly so well connected

"teachers should have have relations with students, not a relationship."

Technologies available in classrooms today range from simple tool-based applications (such as word processors) to online repositories of scientific data and primary historical documents, to handheld computers, closed-circuit television channels, and two-way distance learning classrooms. Even the cell phones that many students now carry with them can be used to learn (Prensky, 2005).

Bruce and Levin (1997), for example, look at ways in which the tools, techniques, and applications of technology can support integrated, inquiry-based learning to "engage children in exploring, thinking, reading, writing, researching, inventing, problem-solving, and experiencing the world." They developed the idea of technology as media with four different focuses: media for inquiry (such as data modeling, spreadsheets, access to online databases, access to online observatories and microscopes, and hypertext), media for communication (such as word processing, e-mail, synchronous conferencing, graphics software, simulations, and tutorials), media for construction (such as robotics, computer-aided design, and control systems), and media for expression (such as interactive video, animation software, and music composition). In a review of existing evidence of technology's impact on learning, Marshall (2002) found strong evidence that educational technology "complements what a great teacher does naturally," extending their reach and broadening their students' experience beyond the classroom. "With ever-expanding content and technology choices, from video to multimedia to the Internet," Marshall suggests "there's an unprecedented need to understand the recipe for success, which involves the learner, the teacher, the content, and the environment in which technology is used."

In examining large-scale state and national studies, as well as some innovative smaller studies on newer educational technologies, Schacter (1999) found that students with access to any of a number of technologies (such as computer assisted instruction, integrated learning systems, simulations and software that teaches higher order thinking, collaborative networked technologies, or design and programming technologies) show positive gains in achievement on researcher constructed tests, standardized tests, and national tests.

Reflective Practitioner

Reflective Practitioner.  

The reflective writing has been valuable but definitely the nearly 4,000 comments have been even more of a learning experience. This is the single best professional development experience I've had.

I use a variety of technologies that help to engage, enhance, and inspire children to want to pursue their ideas. I have found that once you are inspired to learn, you learn how to learn through your ideas about what you understand.

Developing Relationships/Making Connections. I have used Kidblog prior to kindergarten even starting! I set up an account each year and email directions on “How To” blog with a rationale about why, etc. My new students and their families begin in the summer before they begin kindergarten! They post photographs of things they are doing. Then others who are new also to kindergarten begin to post comments on their posts and introduce themselves! A lot of blogging has happened BEFORE we even begin kindergarten and BEFORE we meet face to face! One year one of my kindergarten students wrote, “Only 2 more sleeps until kindergarten.” This is so great! It reflects a beginning of an understanding about how blogging is used to communicate and meet new friends in a safe way.

Kidblog hasn’t changed how I approach the writing process, but rather it has helped me to showcase and enhance the writing that my students are doing. Through blogging, my students experience the same things they experience when writing on paper. They use inventive print, leave spaces in between their words, use periods to end their thoughts, and of course they check their sentences for meaning. This is HUGE. Young children are beginning to re- read and reflect about what they understand and THEN they are able to make changes/edit.