Since I began teaching 15 years ago, technology has really changed the way I teach. I am in constant contact with 78% of my class' parents through email. I also use a class website to stay in contact with my parents and students. My students use computer programs such as Classworks to help remediate or accelerate their learning. I use del.icio.us to help keep up with my bookmarks I find at home and at school to share with my class.
I need to learn more about podcasts and blogs and how to integrate it into my classroom so that I can teach my students to use them as well. Unfortunately, not all students have access to this type of technology. I am one of very few in my school with the percentage of online parents I have. Hopefully in the years to come, it will get better and I will be able to expect things like podcasts and blogs to be used at home as well as school.
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I see that you're already into social bookmarking. Well, hopefully, I can convert you over to a Diigo user. By the way, I STILL have my del.icio.us account and I cross-post from Diigo to there, so I never had to give it up. I just imported all of my bookmarks into Diigo and then I was off after I set it up to cross-post. Easy peasy!! If you're interested in that, let me know and I'll help you out.
ReplyDeleteAs for the podcasting, we'll cover that in a later Thing (18 and/or 19 I think). I would love to see kids creating podcasts, which is easier than you might think - no iPod required to even listen to one. If you're up for trying that out with your students in the future, please let me know. I'm sure I've got quite a few bookmarks on podcasting and/or using them in the classroom.
Blogging!! I think there is a growing interest in the county among teachers to have their students start blogging. I would love to help you out with that as well. There are free blogging services out there specifically for education that I would be happy to help you out with. Edublogs used to be a great one, but sadly they've gone to an ad-supported platform unless you pay :( Kids can easily blog and even if you don't have a lot of access to technology, they can still participate. Think about the idea of a class blog with rotating authors!!
Just a bit of technology for thought....