Reflection 2 (11/28)

This week's class was once again filled with lots of information. We talked more about blogs and we started learning about wikis. I really liked our discussion of Wikipedia and whether it is a reliable resource or not. I think it's pretty cool that any entry can be edited/corrected by anyone around the world. I do see where some people could be sceptical on the validity of the information, since they don't know who actually wrote the entry. However, isn't part of our job as a teacher to teach student how to determine if a source is legit? I think I would let my students use Wikipedia as a starting point. They can take the information from there and check it's validity in other "more reliable" sources.

I am having a very hard time figuring out how to use all this technology in my classes. I "teach" two blocks of glorified study hall, so I doubt I can use it in there. My other class is TAP Math. I want to something for that class, but I have no idea what. The vast majority of the class is individual work in packets, not direct instruction from me. My students range in ability levels from very basic math to advanced algebra. Some of my students are from other schools and are in TAP to make up credits. One or two of my students are taking math for an elective credit. With such a variety of student abilites and very little direct instruction from me, I'm wondering how I can integrate this technology into my curriculum.

Reflection 1 (11/14)

Our first AWE class was very interesting. I know blogging and other forms of technology are very prevalent in the lives of my students, but some of the facts that we learned are astounding. Over 70,000 new blogs and web posts a day. The fastest growing age group on the Internet is 2-5 year olds. 97% of students believe that tech use is important in education. That's huge!

I am not that much older than my students and I do have a lot of this technology. I have email, a blog, and 2 IM screen names. I have Facebook and MySpace accounts. I send text messages. The only thing I don't have is an i-pod. But my dabbling in all these forms of communication are really minor when compared to my students' usage. I am interested to find out just how much time, effort, and money my students put into all their tech toys and communications.

I think this class is going to be really fun and interesting. I still have no idea on how I can integrate this technology into my classes, but I'm really looking forward to learning how it can be done. I would love to give my students who don't have access to some of this technology the opportunity to learn how to use it. I would also like to make class more enjoyable for all my students. I figure if they love to use all this technology at home, they'll probably like to use it at school.