Textbook comments

I think one of the most important messages for me in the first chapter of the book was the author's point that in the "old way", information is delivered and tested and it is presentation driven. In the "new way", there is collaboration - information is shared, discussed, refined with others and understood deeply. Wow! When I truly reflect on these words, I can see the importance of tools such as web 2.0 and things like Google Docs which really I haven't to date seen how they would be used. I guess from here, I need to learn how to use them effectively. Now that I have had this course introducing me to the tools, I can now take this knowledge and learn to use it.

The issue of online safety is one that I deal with daily. At our school, we run an open computer lab in the library which can be used by any student in K-12 before and after school or at lunch time. Yikes! I feel sometimes that I am the computer police (did I do a Masters to become a computer police officer?) and so I am always in constant discussions with my colleagues and students about this topic.

As well, my colleagues in grade 4/5 and I are team teaching this year for research and library skills (so that what they learn is more pertinent to the classroom). We laugh when we tell the kids that our teachers never had to speak to us about cutting and pasting and copyright on computers (and how easy it is to do!). Many of them just don't know that what they're doing is wrong. The earlier we start teaching them about copyright and acceptable use, the better.

I got some good ideas from chapter 4 as to how teachers are using web 2.0 tools in the classroom. Some of the ones that I would like to try with my students are using wikis in literature circles, podcasts, as well as flickr for digital storytelling and imovie to demonstrate understanding of materials.