W4C Blog 3

In Chapter 10 What it All Means, Richardson perfectly describes our challenge as educators. He points to two key factors affecting this challenge. First, the amount of information online is enormous and is Increasing exponentially. Second, most of the new content and online tools is collaborative in nature, having some feature allowing some type of shared workspace capability.

Before this course, I thought the biggest challenge I faced was how to teach my students to discern a credible source from those which are not. This is still important in light of Chapter Ten’s two points, but now I realize that my task is much greater in breadth and depth. I have to teach my students self discipline in order to effectively and responsibly weld this enormous, ever-expanding body of information. The web is like a tool or even a weapon. Used correctly, it can be very productive, but used improperly it can be very harmful and even destructive. Users need the self discipline to focus on a given task without being distracted by the myriad distractions readily available online.

I have to teach my students good judgement in discerning the credibility of a source, how to use the information they find, how to cite their sources, and how to avoid plagiarism.  Not only do I have to teach them to evaluate the information they find, but also to analyze and apply it in practical ways to solve problems in a real life context. this revelation changes everything we do in our classrooms. There is no time for busy work. We talk about getting students ready for the real world when they are already in the real world- connected to it through technology. We have to embrace the truth that our students, despite their age or maturity level are privy to everything on the net.

I had thought that I was fairly good at networking, but my introduction to using RSS feeds and social bookmarking has revolutionized the way that I view professional and personal networking. The saying that technology is shrinking the globe has taken on new meaning for me. Just in the course of the last two weeks, I have subscribed to blogs and other RSS feeds that have challenged my thinking and inspired me with new ideas for my upcoming new school year.

Samantha’s blog gave some great examples of how social media like Twitter and Tumblr could be used for learning experiences and instruction. This really changed my thinking. I had come to believe that social media was just a giant gimmick and distraction to real educational endeavors and that it should be blocked, filtered, and forbidden in school. However, demonstrating how to use social media productively and responsibly, and even in a manner focused on learning content is by far more important. The greatest tragedy would be if we let our students through our fingers without teaching them how to use technology to effectively network and collaborate with others to share and manipulate information.

On a personal note, I want to thank Dr. Yoon and all of you, my fellow classmates, for making this 516 course truly the most illuminating and inspiring experience of the IDT program.I'm sure I will be running into you all somewhere out there in tech land.