I do plan to continue to use this blog to go back and refresh my memory in the tools that I have been using this summer. My hope is to incorporate a few tools at a time into my classroom. I do plan on sharing these ideas with other teachers and hope that they will learn to use them with their students. My thoughts now are to work with some of the newer teachers to get them started with one or two tools and then branch out from there. I will also be using the same tools with my elementary students, 4th and 5th graders mostly, while the HS teachers are working with their students and I collaborate with them. I don't want to overwhelm them with all of these ideas and have them not use any. We'll focus on the ones that will benefit them most.
The ones that I see my teachers understanding and being willing to use most will be blogging, RSS feeds, and Google Docs. All can be used very easily and academically. From there, we might enter the world of wikis for collaboration between teachers and students or just student/student. Baby steps for now. I do see podcasting becoming a great way for students to enhance their learning both in listening to them and in making them. I have recorded podcasts before and feel pretty comfortable in showing students how to do it. It's getting the teachers to want to explore that as an option. The good thing is that we are all looking for ways in which to differentiate our instruction and what better way that with Web 2.0 tools!
CR
Thanks for starting this lifelong learning journey. It is hoped participants will take away from this many new tools to try, as well as resources for staying informed as new things develop out there in the cyber world.
ReplyDeleteThanks for encouraging others along the way. Please do check back over the next few weeks, to comment on blogs of other participants if you have time, to keep them going as well! We'd love to hear from you over the coming year as you try new things with your students!