Just the beginning- Thing 23

Wohoo! Finally!
Wow, what an experience. My mind is racing as to the ways I can use this information in my classroom.
I can see a huge resource for me as a teacher. From writing in my blogs, embedding videos and pictures, I have found a new way to reach students as I teach.

There is a larger question that looms over me however.

This is not about me. It is about my students.

How can I take what I have learned and help my students to use this technology? What can I do in the classroom that will require them to use this technology? Can my district support me with this technology?

I HAVE to find ways to make my STUDENTS use this.

This program has showed me that there is so much more out there than I knew before. As my dad said in a recent email, "Nine years ago when I got a computer I got on the internet and thought I was "cool" and "with it". Now all of a sudden I feel left in the dust." I was feeling out in the dust as well. I am still a little dusty, but I hope I am a little more in tune with a few things going out on the web. I am still amazed by it all and I wonder how people keep up. I guess it comes down to what life is about. You pick what is important to you.

I plan to use most of what I learned in this class in my classroom. It is my hope to have some after-school workshops for parents and students on creating delicious accounts, how to use the wiki and the like. I plan to use my blog and hope to put in videos and pictures and links. I plan to have a few students run the wiki. I will definately be using Flikr in my classroom, and hope to engage my students into using it as well. I can't wait to find out how to make my own podcast. I would love for my science students to be able to pod the daily weather or my drama students to pod small skits that they have written. I also plan to look at each unit I teach and figure out a way to utlize technology so that my students are creating and responding.

In response as to how to keep up with Web 2.0, it may just come down to classes like this. I will keep my eyes open for new adventures. I plan to keep looking for good RSS feeds and podcasts.

My biggest "take-away" from all of this is that I am aware that there are programs out there that will guide me to create wonderful things. I do not have to be a know-it-all in programming. These Web tools are pretty simple to use and utilize and you can get big responses. My confidence has been boosted. I plan on keeping up with this blog- only changing it a bit to reflect a larger audience.

Technology changes daily. This constant evolution is hard to keep up with. I do not think that we have to. You can go crazy doing this. There is an analogy between new technologies and new recipes. Just like a good recipe- I will use the one I like until I see something different come along. I will try that out. If I like it, I will add it to my recipe book. If I do not, I will get rid of it and not worry about it. The same can be said of all of this technology.

Thank you for the opportunity to explore!