Thing #23

How has my thinking changed over the summer? I'm always interested in technology, but I'm not always comfortable making time to just play around with it. Other matters seem to be more pressing, especially since I'm not currently teaching. But there are so many useful resources available via Web 2.0, both for personal and professional use, and I'm thankful I've had the opportunity to learn more about a number of them. And I'll continue to use a number of the sites, as well! It's a whole new world! I've realized I shouldn't really divide different technology resources into "teaching tools" and "personal tools", they are "life tools".

In some ways though, a course like this is frustrating. To see what education should be and could be, but isn't, is heartbreaking. Especially as a parent about to send her oldest to school this year, I pray that his teachers will be open to what technology has to offer. I also yearn for reform for our educational system at the bureaucratic levels. A teacher can be passionate about technology and change, but she still has standardized tests looming in the background and administrators to answer to.

Someday, when and if I do return to the classroom, I will have the confidence to implement more technology in my lessons and assignments simply because I have the knowledge to do so. I'll keep checking back with the ISD and other courses offered both online and in the area to stay up-to-date with Web 2.0.

This last video I watched for Thing #23 had a number of statements included with which I agreed whole-heartedly. I've always believed that education needs to be more about teaching HOW to find information that simply being able to regurgitate it. We need to teach students about the process of learning. Web 2.0 assists in this. I loved the one statement made toward the end...something to the effect of this is the death of education, but the dawn of learning. YES!