The social web

I feel that FCPS is trying to attempt to bring teacher together by using blackboard as a connection for teachers to share their ideas, projects, information and more. But I don't feel like all teachers are taking advantage of that. I myself being one of them. I'm not sure if it's because I like to have face to face contact or sharing all of my work for everyone to use and see makes me uneasy. I think another reason is due to the fact that I wasn't comfortable using all the tools we were given. When I'm not comfortable with something I tend to ignore it. I sometimes have the 2 year old mentality. If I can't see it, it's not there.

During my reading of Chapter 6 in Will Richardson's book a quote caught my attention. This is found on page 88. "It's starting to feel like you need your own army to help you keep track of all the information you might need or want." With the many tools we have available to us today that are suppose to make things "easier" I feel like it is adding more work to my already heavily loaded schedule. Where is my army and why do I need to learn all these other things to further complicate my school life? As I continued reading I found that the more a tool is used the easier it will become because I will begin to be familiar with it. Something many people don't do is spend the time becoming familiar. As a person living in an instant gratification society I don't like waiting. This is something I am going to have to do if I want to use this technology in the classroom or my everyday life.

How to i find the time to set up all these great tools and become familiar with them when I am trying to complete my masters (keep up with all the work), teach, plan a wedding, and everything else life throws at me? Have you found it works for you and are comfortable? How much time does it really take?

Wiki's

One of the reasons our school doesn't want our students using Wiki's is the fact that anyone can edit the material at any time. It is funny to me at my school because at one moment they don't want students using wikipedia and then they are encouraging them to use them. After reading further into Will Richardson's book in chapter four wiki's I feel I have a better understanding about the use of wikipedia in the classroom. Many of my students start their research at wikipedia. I've learned that this is fine, as a starting point. The next step is to encourage students to further their research.

FCPS is going more towards adding much of their curriculum and shared information on blogs and wiki's, but I never felt comfortable with attempting. It was really interesting that high school curriculum in South Africa is posted on wiki.

I find it great that free site use ideas are given throughout the book. I just don't know if I am comfortable enough with using them. When will I be comfortable and how do I speed up a process just to try it? Which class would be best to try it with? These are just some of the questions running through my head. Has anyone attempted using wiki's other then wikipedia in their classrooms?

Apply and Safe?

Applying blogging as a classroom assignment or activity makes me feel very nervous right now. I feel that I don't have the knowledge to help my students achieve a productive and successful learning environment. Maybe as I continue to learn more about the tool and what type of roles it would take in a lesson or throughout a unit I might feel more open to implementing it. These are the times where I feel I am a digital immigrant. I should have the students teach me about blogging. Most of them are already on facebook or myspace and do this on a regular basis, but do they know they are blogging?

I've learned throughout my years of teaching (which is still limited) that students of any age at times seem to be oblivious to the fact that people other than their friends have opportunities to look at what they post on the Internet. I understand talking to students about safety on the computer does help and causes realization and understanding, but does the information get applied to their daily Internet activities? Stories I have heard about administration surfing facebook and myspace because someone is suspected of doing something inappropriate has become a normal thing and yet students still post pictures, stories, and video incriminating themselves. My mom teaches elementary school and she just recently shared a story about one of the 6th graders posting her full name on a web page she created along with where she went to school. She was discussing the web page with students in her class and then wanted to show it to her teacher. The teacher become instantly worried and had the young girl remove the information. As my mom continued the story she said something which worried me. The students parents had no idea their daughter had posted anything and the young girl didn't understand why the teacher wanted her to not post her name. This was even after the teacher gave detailed explanation.

How do I reach all of my students (which I know is only wishful thinking, I can't reach all of them)? When do I know? I know this is going to sound a bit closed minded, but how can I use this successfully for ASL?