Reflection on Ch. 3 Creations

This activity taught me to work as a team, communicate, cooperate and research the information needed to create a photostory about one section of Ch. 3. As teachers, we have to equip our students with the ability to use both sides of their brains and think outside the box. The skills learned in this activity will be skills that students will use not only in their jobs, but their everyday lives.

Homework: Chapter 3

21 clc has made me think more of R vs L brain thinking so I took an online quiz to see which brain I am. I found that I equally use both sides of my brain. When reading Chapter 3, I was surprised to learn that MFA's are harder to achieve than law degrees. Machines are taking over many jobs today because they can be done cheaper, quicker and more efficiently than a person. Universities are implementing classes in their cirriculum that make the student use their creative and emphatic sides rather than their "smarts". I have always thought that our education system relies too heavily on tests scores. Lots of time, a student is a horrible test taker, but knows the information probably better than the student who aces the test.

Today's kids love technology in any form. We as teachers, need to "grab" that love and use it. If we incorporate more technology into our classrooms, our students will "grab" the learning. Regardless of how old or set in our ways we are, we need to learn along with our students. After all, how can we expect them to learn new things if we are afraid to do it ourselves.

Thing 4: Commenting on other blogs

I liked commenting on my fellow co-workers blogs. I especially enjoyed reading their thoughts. So far the only thing I have found that I do not like is that everytime I post a blog, that stupid verification code thing comes up. But I feel like that is because we are all using the same IP address during this inservice. Overall, it is pretty cool. I was excited when I found my first comments. Commenting is important because it allows you to voice your opinion. I think that students would be excited to see students from other schools or states commenting on their writing. I belong to facebook mainly because my students were always talking about it in class and I didn't know what they were talking about. Since I teach computers and technology, I felt that it was important for me to know what they were discussing in my class so I joined.

Thing 3: Adding widgets

I edited the "About me" widget to add my personal info pertaining to my school and what I teach. I did not initially add much info, but I may add more as I get more comfortable with all of this. I also added a subscription widget. My only problems that I encountered was initially finding how to add the widget/gadget. With the help of my teammates in 21 clc, I was able to find the appropriate button.

Thing 2: Reflections on Web 2.0

My thoughts on Web 2.0 are that machines (computers, cell phones, etc.) are the trend of today's children. What we need to know is that we are the machines. The internet is a 2 way avenue for people to communicate, learn and collaborate with each other. Today's audience can get content overload. We have to learn how to sort out the information. As teachers, we have to know enough and feel comfortable enough with technology to teach our students and then we have to let them do it.