Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Thing 23 -- Reflecting on the Journey -- HOORAY!

This experience has given me the push I needed to investigate some of the amazing technology that is out there. The reality is that time often allow for such investigations. My mission for the remainder of the summer is to continue learning and playing around with blogs, wikis, podcasts and to figure out how these technologies fit into what I'm already doing as a classroom teacher AND to use some of these technology adventures to create NEW lessons, tools, and assessments for my students. I'm happy that I finished this "early" (though not as early as some others) so that I have time before school starts to pursue these goals.

Since I began "Thing 1," my attitude about incorporating technology has become more positive. Although I always had the interest, I just never felt as if I had the time to fully understand how I can apply these technologies to my classroom. Yes, I still struggle with the lack of fabulous technology readily available in our schools. However, I have had time to consider how to make it work and it seems doable.

Before participating in this program, I had some ideas about how students (the next generation) use technology differently than many of us do. As a mom, I can see how my kids view (and take for granted) the conveniences that technology allows. The digital world and social networking is changing the way we learn, research, and communicate. We need to prepare our students for the implications of the technology.

Once I finish this blog entry, I plan on going back to my Moodle course that I have used for the past three years. I need to figure out how to intergrate what I learned here with Moodle. On Moodle, I can download documents and my courses are wonderfully organized. I can "hide" parts that I don't want students to view. I need to play with my new "tools" and figure out how to combine what I'm already doing with what I aspire to do. Possibly, I'll have students create blogs or wikis that I can subscribe to. I guess I'm not completely sure yet, but I know I'll do something awesome this coming year.

Thanks for a fantastic learning experience! I'm pleased that I took the time to participate (and was lucky enough to get in).




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2 comments:

  1. RESA 23ThingsJuly 23, 2009 at 4:03 PM

    We're convinced that you definitely will do "something awesome this coming year." You have some great ideas and now a few more weeks to think about them and experiment. Congratulations on your successful completion of 23 Things.

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  2. Teri BelcherAugust 21, 2009 at 2:55 PM

    Mary Beth, your blog is very helpful and has a lot of information that you have made available. I am finding that by going to the various blogs, I will have enough information to increase my bag of tricks for many years to come. I like reading the ways people use the various tools.

    I found a tool that might help you as well. It's diigo and with the rss feed from it, I get new websites every day. The advantage of diigo is that I can breeze through those ten sites and then tag them into my delicious, so I am building my favorites and sites for my teachers without spending hours online searching. You can be sure that I will at your link to mine as well.

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