Lessons+Learned

Maria Digiansante EDUC538 K. Pyatt Lessons Learned I have always known the internet was exploding exponentially while I was watching its fireworks from curbside. Why couldn’t I be like the adults I grew up with, you know, the ones with “12:00” flashing on the vcr because they “just can’t figure out how to get the time on the tape machine.” Every time I am required to install hard or soft ware on my computer I fearfully wait hoping that the computer will know what to do when I put the disk into the drive because I do not. So, the time has come to figure out how to set the time on the vcr! I began this class with very little understanding of Web 2.0 tools, well, none at all. I now have a Wikispace, a blog, a Protopage, about a dozen new accounts and passwords to remember. Some tools I have discovered I believe will be useful in my future classroom, while others may stay “in the box”. The real benefit of acquiring these tools lies not so much in their application but in the change that has occurred in my perception of their use. I am in the group of thinkers that believe cell phones and texting need to stay out of the classroom. It seems as if I was perpetuating the gap between schools and technology. Now I look forward to integrating as much technology into my classroom. My new perception places the web in a different position, that of a useful tool that students are more familiar with, a tool that offers more versatility than any others in my closet, a tool that can be accessed in the classroom and the living room, and a tool from my student’s generation not mine. Of course I will use tried and true tools of the past but now I feel more equipped to use the tools of the future. The web 2.0 is an ever growing and changing toolbox. With what I have learned in this class I know that time is of the essence, I better use what I know or lose it. The best way to avoid losing new information is to apply it, so, I plan on posting to blogs, updating my blog, Skyping friends and family, creating podcasts, and creating new Protopages just to name a few. Glypho is the most interesting site so far. I have definite safety concerns with content but I can definitely see including previewed pages on my overhead screen as writing lesson is taught, having my students create and suggest content for the stories on the site. I would also love to create a classroom version using a classroom blog for writer’s workshop where students put their stories on the blog and classmates offer editing suggestions on the blog. This will work I just know it, now….where are the computers???