Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 10 and epilogue) Reflection

I have come to the end of this book and realize that I have learned a lot about many different tools I will be able to use in my classroom.  It is amazing what you can learn from a book if you actually read it!  The last chapter talked about ten big shifts that teaching is going through or will go through due to the new technology that is available.  The technology that is available opens up the door to new possibilities and ways of teaching many teachers probably never thought about.  One of the shifts is a shift to open content.  Most teachers get their content from a textbook that already has worksheets and tests that came along with it.  With new technology, teachers have access to so much more information and new resources that they can use to teach the same information.  The new information and resources will help keep students more engaged and make learning fun again.  I think there are a lot of students out there who don’t like to learn because teachers don’t always make it fun.  It’s hard to sit in class day after day and be expected to learn if what the teacher is teaching isn’t fun or interesting to you.  The technology we have now also gives students and teachers easier access to each other and other people who can help them learn.  Using blogs is one way your students can get feedback from their peers, parents, other teachers, and other people around the world depending on how you set up access to the blog.  This allows student’s access to many teachers and makes students teachers themselves.  Students have access to information in different forms that might make a concept easier for them to learn and also allows students to learn the information at a time and place that is convenient form them.  Technology also is allowing students to collaborate much easier on group projects.  You could have students design a wiki page and they would never have to actually meet face to face to do it because of the tools that they may have access to.  As a teacher, I want to encourage my students to work together and to learn from each other.  I want to teach them how to work together and use the technology that is out there so that when they get out in the ‘real’ world they are prepared.  I am a future secondary level science teacher and I realize not all my students are going to go to college and get a career in a science related field, but I still want to contribute to readying them for the future.  One way I can do that is to incorporate technology into my teaching style and teach my students how to use technology.  Giving my students access to technology and showing them how to use it will prepare them for the future.  I want my students to enjoy coming to my class every day and to be as excited as I am about what we are learning.  I think using and introducing to students the technology that I have learned about in this book will accomplish both those goals.