A Moment for Reflection

I actually talked about this is my weekly review of Clarence Fisher's Remote Access Blog, because there was a connection between the two. I do agree with some of the criticism of the current use of technology within the classroom. I think that it's underusage speaks to courage to try new things and being able to see the benefits that it might bring. Change is often a real daunting process and if there's not anything in it for us, they why do it?? This appplies to technology too. It's just kind of sad in a way becuase I don't think that students see technology with the fear that I usually do. Technology is so embeded in their lives that it's just common place. For my project for this class I've proposed ( with Brent's help) creating a web page for my students to use while they are on their practicums. Marnie seemed ok with the idea but wanted to know what type of media I would include in the site, other then contact info, resources and a q and a resource. When she asked me that I had no idea what she was talking about. What types of media is there?? Well, I read some of the Web 2.0 stuff and boy there's alot of social networking. I'm going to try (with emphasis on try) to set up a facebook account. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. For me anyway, this would be a small and obviously underused technology, but it would be a HUGH step in my incoroporating technology into my life/teaching. Last week Clarence Fisher talked about news on line and gave some sites. Boy, that alone was a a big step for me. I think that as Dewey's quote refered to at the start of this block 5, it's just important that as teachers we recogninze when/if/and how we need to change what we're doing. I remember Steve talking about a Bio teacher friend of his that has a binder with overheads that he keeps on using year after year. I saw the connection to me, becuase as a new teacher (and I use that word lightly in my case) I did the exact same thing. I was really worried about missing information that doing the exact same thing was #1 for me. Now, with experience and some more reading from this class and Clarence's blog, I can see that maybe now I have enough confidence to branch out a bit and see what I can do. I do have to admit that I did see the limitations of my "binders" and tried right from the start to personallize what I was teaching with examples from my practice. Now maybe I might learn some new technology (for me anyway, but not others I suspect) that could help me be an even better teacher becuase it delivers my info in formats that students are familiar with and really like. For me, that meant power point and I was too scared to even try that. I have mastered a bit now as a result of the presentations that I had to do for this class. I guess at the end of the day, from my point of view, it's important to recognize that you need help and then be brave enough to go look for it in effective ways.