Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Where I am and how I got there

What a wonderful time I've had with this class, Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom! I've particularly appreciated the independent nature of the class. Most of what we've been learning about and experimenting with requires a substantial investment of time. It would have been difficult to manage the traditional online discussion boards if they had been required in addition to the blogging. It was a pleasure to be able to indulge myself with time on the computer with a clear conscience!

Although I started my blog a year ago, I had never posted very regularly. Now that I've pushed myself to meet the course requirements of two blogs a week (more or less), I'm hoping that I'll be able to maintain a similar schedule of my own volition. Looking at the blogs of students from previous classes gives me pause, though, because only a very few of them have continued to blog since their classes ended. I like to think that perhaps they've started new ones somewhere else...

The RSS feed, Google Docs, podcasts, all were things I knew about but had never really taken the time to work with much. Now that they're familiar I'm pretty sure they'll stay at the top of my list. There are so many new ideas for ways to utilize the tools in classrooms and other educational settings. It was a small class but I've very much appreciated my conversations with the other members of the class. I do feel I need to do some more work with wikis, but at least I've made a start on it.

I've been encouraged to learn that there are so many people out there talking about the issues and looking for ways to connect and share with others. Now, if we can just keep in mind the words of a Hebrew proverb...Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time. How I would love to hear more conversations in that vein than the ones so frequently taking place among the members of the Doom'n'Gloom Brigade.

1 comment:

Jeff said...

I'm glad you found this course useful in helping you to explore some of the new tools that are available to teachers today to use in their classrooms.

Reflection is something that we tell students is very important, yet as teachers I do not see us taking our own advice and reflecting often enough. My hope is that this blog will allow you to reflect in an open format that others can learn from. We all have so much to share. By taking time to reflect once or twice a week we all become better educators for it.

That's what I do on my blog, I make time at least twice a week to just reflect about something I'm doing, something I've read, or a conversation that I've had. Make it a priority and it will open new doors to new friends and professional colleagues.