Welcome to the new world.
I exist somewhere in the gray area between old & busted and new hotness. I use the web and computers daily. I am the "go to" person among my coworkers for any new tech tools. I blogged before it was called blogging (WWIV message boards). I E-mailed before it was called E-mailing (BITNET). I did online graphics before there was a photoshop (ANSI and Cshow). All that said, I am not what you would call an early adopter. I shun sites like Twitter or Facebook until I see whether or not they're going to "catch on." I don't invest time in a technology until it is proven valuable. I still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
Site 1
So anyway, regarding the writing prompt, I visited Cool Cat Teacher. This blog has quite a bit of good information on how Web 2.0 tools can be used in the classroom, including examples. However, like many other blogs of its kind, it's hard to get past all the linking and sharing and get to the meat. The purpose of the blog is to share these Web 2.0 resources, but to find them, I have to first weed out the offers to subscribe to feeds; the offers to search this blog and the web; the offers to visit old posts -- one of three different ways; the list of upcoming events and a chance to subscribe to those; the offer to "share" with this blogger on one of 16 other networking tools; the offer to read comments others have made on this blog; the offer to read accolades for this blogger; the offers to see slideshows created by this blogger (which are almost certainly embedded in old blog posts); the offers to see what other blogs this blogger reads (and I'll bet she doesn't really read all more-than-80 of them); the offer to see the books the blogger recommends (which, like all other similar blogs, includes Friedman's The World Is Flat); the offer of links to other sites; and the offer to read comments from other sources. I know, information is power. Could I please be just a little bit less powerful after reading your blog?
More is not necessarily better. My blog is going to be a whole lot simpler.
Site 2
I also visited Applied Math 40S. This is a blog created for a specific class session. The teacher used the blog to share resources with the students, and the students used it to share their experiences with each other. I thought this blog looked interesting and valuable to all involved. I look forward to using something similar. One note on this blog, however, is that one rotating student was assigned to be the "Scribe" each day. Sometimes, this student would record his/her observations in what I'll call "internet-speak" -- no capitalization or punctuation or attention to grammar/spelling at all (see this specific post -- the title is even misspelled!). I realize the focus of this teacher's class is math. However, is it too much to ask that the students at least make an attempt to communicate properly? Are we doing a disservice to the students and to their Comm-Arts teachers by expecting less?
Site 3
Finally, I visited Mathematics Learning. This math teacher blog from India offered a few links and reviews of Web 2.0 resources. Her reviews were a bit short of substance (basically consisting of "Use this!" recommendations) and unfortunately her skills in English are marginal at best. Her examples, however, demonstrate that the technology being invented today crosses borders and can be used to benefit students and teachers worldwide.
Information Processing in a Web 2.0 World
One of the things we have been told in the Park program is that children today process information differently than we did. For example, we were taught to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand. Kids today, however, have been raised on multi-tasking, and we are being counseled to learn to respect this "new" model of learning. It makes me wonder about what it takes to learn the skill of multi-tasking and whether the skill is truly a benefit. Here is my anecdote: I read these blogs and wrote this review/posting while watching the NCAA tournament on TV and listening to my family banter in the next room after Easter dinner. And yes, maybe I'm old and busted, but I feel like my work above was really quite substandard, as a result of the distractions. Would we all benefit instead from counseling our students to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand?
Maybe my comments above make me look a little behaviorist ("old school," as opposed to constructivist). To that charge I will reply: was behaviorism really so bad that it should be discarded and banned completely?
I exist somewhere in the gray area between old & busted and new hotness. I use the web and computers daily. I am the "go to" person among my coworkers for any new tech tools. I blogged before it was called blogging (WWIV message boards). I E-mailed before it was called E-mailing (BITNET). I did online graphics before there was a photoshop (ANSI and Cshow). All that said, I am not what you would call an early adopter. I shun sites like Twitter or Facebook until I see whether or not they're going to "catch on." I don't invest time in a technology until it is proven valuable. I still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
Site 1
So anyway, regarding the writing prompt, I visited Cool Cat Teacher. This blog has quite a bit of good information on how Web 2.0 tools can be used in the classroom, including examples. However, like many other blogs of its kind, it's hard to get past all the linking and sharing and get to the meat. The purpose of the blog is to share these Web 2.0 resources, but to find them, I have to first weed out the offers to subscribe to feeds; the offers to search this blog and the web; the offers to visit old posts -- one of three different ways; the list of upcoming events and a chance to subscribe to those; the offer to "share" with this blogger on one of 16 other networking tools; the offer to read comments others have made on this blog; the offer to read accolades for this blogger; the offers to see slideshows created by this blogger (which are almost certainly embedded in old blog posts); the offers to see what other blogs this blogger reads (and I'll bet she doesn't really read all more-than-80 of them); the offer to see the books the blogger recommends (which, like all other similar blogs, includes Friedman's The World Is Flat); the offer of links to other sites; and the offer to read comments from other sources. I know, information is power. Could I please be just a little bit less powerful after reading your blog?
More is not necessarily better. My blog is going to be a whole lot simpler.
Site 2
I also visited Applied Math 40S. This is a blog created for a specific class session. The teacher used the blog to share resources with the students, and the students used it to share their experiences with each other. I thought this blog looked interesting and valuable to all involved. I look forward to using something similar. One note on this blog, however, is that one rotating student was assigned to be the "Scribe" each day. Sometimes, this student would record his/her observations in what I'll call "internet-speak" -- no capitalization or punctuation or attention to grammar/spelling at all (see this specific post -- the title is even misspelled!). I realize the focus of this teacher's class is math. However, is it too much to ask that the students at least make an attempt to communicate properly? Are we doing a disservice to the students and to their Comm-Arts teachers by expecting less?
Site 3
Finally, I visited Mathematics Learning. This math teacher blog from India offered a few links and reviews of Web 2.0 resources. Her reviews were a bit short of substance (basically consisting of "Use this!" recommendations) and unfortunately her skills in English are marginal at best. Her examples, however, demonstrate that the technology being invented today crosses borders and can be used to benefit students and teachers worldwide.
Information Processing in a Web 2.0 World
One of the things we have been told in the Park program is that children today process information differently than we did. For example, we were taught to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand. Kids today, however, have been raised on multi-tasking, and we are being counseled to learn to respect this "new" model of learning. It makes me wonder about what it takes to learn the skill of multi-tasking and whether the skill is truly a benefit. Here is my anecdote: I read these blogs and wrote this review/posting while watching the NCAA tournament on TV and listening to my family banter in the next room after Easter dinner. And yes, maybe I'm old and busted, but I feel like my work above was really quite substandard, as a result of the distractions. Would we all benefit instead from counseling our students to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand?
Maybe my comments above make me look a little behaviorist ("old school," as opposed to constructivist). To that charge I will reply: was behaviorism really so bad that it should be discarded and banned completely?
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