Hola todos

I really enjoyed taking this class.  While I do not see myself using every tool that we learned, I feel that there are certain tools that I am ready to try with my classes including blogging and digital storytelling.  I liked the format of the class.  I appreciated being able to focus on one tool each week and I think that I really benefited from having the chance tor try out each technology.  In addition, I think that my vocabulary for new technology has grown.  Before taking this class, I did not know important terms such as blog, wiki and web 2.0.

            I regret that I was not more diligent about writing my blogs after each class.  I think that perhaps it would have been more useful to reflect in writing between each class session.  On the other hand, writing these blogs this afternoon did give me the chance to reflect on what I learned throughout the class.  I hope to be able to take more technology courses at STI. 

I am not sure how I feel about del.icio.us.  I suppose that it would be useful for someone who spends a lot of time searching the web.  I personally usually forget to add a site to my favorites, and I forget about the site until the next time that I try and open it.  I am not sure that I am ready to invest the time in trying out delicious.  I guess that this sort of social bookmarking could be interesting.  What do our favorite sites say about us?  I’m not sure that there is anyone who would be interested in seeing a list of my favorite sites or if I know anyone whose sites I am dying to see.  On the other hand, it would be nice, to have one list of favorites rather than having to keep one at home and one at work.   

I was impressed with the video that we watched during our fourth class on the flat classroom project between a class in Georgia and a class in Bangladesh.  It is amazing how technology can foster interaction between children living in such distant and different cultures.  The students in the video said that they benefited from the project on many levels, allowing them to learn from and with students from another cultural.  They also said that the wiki-centered project gave them new technological skills.  Clearly, I would love to be able to plan such a project, yet it seems a bit overwhelming.  I often have trouble finding time to plan with Edgemont colleagues in my own department.  How does one go about planning such a project with a teacher who is across the world?

            I enjoyed our session on videoconferencing.  It seems like a great opportunity for extending our students learning beyond the classroom.  It is definitely something that I would like to look into incorporating in my foreign language classes.  

I enjoyed experimenting with Inspiration during our last class of the new technology seminar.  I think that this is could be a useful tool for the foreign language classroom.  On the basic level, beginning students could use it as a tool for reenforcing new vocabulary.  I often have students make vocabulary webs in class- allowing them to visualize relationships between different words and concepts.  I think that inspiration would make this type of learning more powerful for the visual learners in the class.  For my higher-level classes, I would like to try and use Inspiration as a tool for the beginning stages of writing and/ or research projects.  By beginning the project by brainstorming with a web of ideas, the students will be able to better understand the direction that they want to go with the project as well as re-enforce basic vocabulary that they will need in the target language. 

I enjoyed reading the article that Rob Brewster sent out about new technology: “Don’t Be Afraid to Explore Web 2.0 by John Thompson.  I like the point that he makes about how our use of the Internet is really changing with the new web applications.  We truly have changed from “read-only medium” to “read/write” medium which as a result “shift(s) the focus from individualized work to collaborative efforts.”  I think that words in the title “don’t be afraid to explore web 2.0” make for a very appropriate title.  I remember using the Internet for the first time.  I was part way through college and one of my professors required that we use at least one web site as a source for a research paper.  I remember being a little annoyed at the time.  Why would I want to waste my time struggling to figure out how to find a good web site when we had a perfectly good library with wonderful research material right there on campus?  In fact, at the time, I was scared of this new technology.  I think that it is easy to be sacred of anything that is new.  I guess that we need to remember that these new Web 2.0 applications which can be a bit intimidating will quickly become part of what we consider essential applications and will soon after be replaced by something new. 

I enjoyed reading the article “Here Comes Everybody.”  It is interesting to think about the concept of free time and to consider leisure activities to be simply a construction created to deal with this surplus.  I agree that with the author’s point.  It does seem like TV was made to fill a void created by free time.  I also enjoyed reading about the difference in media  as we move from a public that just wanted to consume to a public that also wants to produce and share.  Perhaps this is too general, though.  Yes, some people want to spend their free time creating and sharing blogs , wikis, and digital movies . . . but I am not sure that this necessary applies to the general public.  There is something nice about the lack of responsibility involved in sitting and watching TV as compared to the more advanced skills involved in the “21st century media”.

The resilience of teacher culture- I found the video to be a bit depressing.  How much default teaching do we do?  I think that “default teaching” is definitely part of the day, but I also think that students and teachers at Edgemont are encouraged to go beyond that.  I find that students have mixed reactions when we really ask them to think, to create , to be creative (which really should be all the time).  Some students are engaged and excited about creative activities.  Other students groan and sit there and ask why we can’t just teach them the material.  I guess that wanting to take the easy route in part is human nature, but how do we encourage these students to go beyond that?  I guess that we encourage them to do more by requiring them to do it and having high expectations.  Usually at Edgemont, students rise to these expectations.

I enjoyed the conversation about “obsolete” skills verse new skills.   Is learning to tie a show an obsolete skill.  I guess that I want to say no because sneakers still have shoe laces.  It’s interested to think about skills changing from generation to generation

So I have started to play around with the idea of a class blog and I have written a rough copy of a blog for my ninth grade Spanish class.  I ran into a few issues.  First I had trouble distinguishing between a page and a post, but I think that I understand that now.  Next, I made categories which I then thought I should change to tags, but I thought that was a mistake so I changed it back.  My biggest concern seems to be that I can’t figure out how to change the  order that the categories appear on the page.  Some categories are more important than others and I would like them to appear first.  I’m also not sure that I know how to attach links.

 In terms of the students, do they all have to get accounts to post comments?  I don’t think that I want someone from the outside posting on my class blog.  Could that happen? I guess that there are many things to think about here.

I went to a conference on teaching foreign language last week.  I used to go this conference regularly, but I hadn’t been in at least five years.  I couldn’t believe how many sessions had to deal with using technology.  The term “blog” (which thanks to this course I now recognize) was probably used in every session that I went to.  One presenter said, “of course, we are all blogging.”  I was also intrigued by the idea of digital storytelling.  I think that my students would really like that.  Has anyone used a digital storytelling program?

So, I think that I’d like to a blog with my 9th grade Spanish class.  maybe I could call it “el blog de las vacaciones”.  During spring break and maybe the week after break I’d ask the students to make  or respond to a post about their vacation (all in Spanish of , course).  I could separate it into categories: trips, movies, restaurants . . . Could this work?  Is a blog the best format for this type of project?