Activity 12 - Complaints and Ideas

Since this is the space for honesty and reflection I will start with this: 4 years ago when I taught at a middle school in a different District I used technology almost everyday in my classroom. Since coming to Monroe I have felt stifled by the lack of technnology in the classroom and the lack of technology that kids have access to in their homes.

For instance: I had this great lesson on The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe using a youtube video of Homer Simpson reading/performing the poem. After I waited 10 minutes (okay this may be a slight exaggeration)for the laptop to upload, I was then blocked from the site. I was able to get the site on my desktop computer, but since the projector is on the cart with the laptop with the site blocked, I was standing there floundering in front of my class. Eventually I turned my back while my students 'by passed' the blockage and we watched the video - in spurts and sputters due to the banwidth (bandwidth?) limitations. Not a very heartening experience.

Now having complained for two paragraphs I will look at the brighter side: Mary Bullard is a font of information and has eased some of my issues with the technology and I try to read her regular emails about "what's new." My students were able to create some really cool projects using a virtual museum and my fake wall for their Harlem Renaissance projects. As with any project, some students really used the software to its fullest capacity while some others just sort of "filled in the blanks".

I would love to have faster wireless access (faster laptops would be great too) so tht we could use the laptops in the classroom for collaboration of group projects. I would love to use Web 2.0 for group discussion/posts and for the students to be able to work together through wikis and other sharing sites.

The thing is with technology is this: I just learned all of this for the second time as I had a class before, but since I don't use it all the time it leaves my memory, and it changes quickly. I would love to take a class right before school begins that would let me refresh my memory and then begin to apply the technology to my lesson plans. PD in August as a refresher would be awesome! Maybe Mary could then help me get around the structural barriers that I feel are in my way when using technology in the classroom.

Activity 6

I have never used google docs before today, although I have received many google doc documents. Since I use my work computer, as well as my home computer, I often email documents to myself; using google docs is certainly easier than that.

Its benefits in the classroom, for group collaboration, is fantastic. Peer editing, group papers, etc. could all be managed through this. In addition, it gives students access to programs they may not have at home, thereby making compatability between home and school easier. For instance, my students often want to access their school documents at home, but without a flash drive this is next to impossible. From now on I will recommend that they use google docs so that they can access from anywhere.

Activity 5

Although I see the benefits of social bookmarking, but I am finding it a tad frustrating. I suppose slowing down and spending some time on Delicious would be helpful.

Activity 4

As I wrote in my initial post, I have created blogs before but quickly got bored and never returned. I do think this is a medium that would be of wonderful use in the classroom. Actually, I must confess, that everytime I begin a blog I think,
this is it! I am going to create this blog and gather a following and share my brilliance with the world wide web..." but after a post or two I grow bored with myself.

Using this in the classroom, as a place for lectures, notes, links to articles, etc. would be a useful tool.

Here we go!

I have created blogs before, but have never followed through with them. I am very interested in creating a blog for readers - and the use in the classroom would be great.