My IT growth has grown hugely since moving to ISM. The more I learn the more I find I want to know. It took me a while to understand the idea of a BLOG and blogging and how we can use this in our classrooms….Now, 2 years later, I don’t know what I would do without by class BLOG.
- How to use my BLOG in different ways in my classroom for student learning and to make it fun and engaging for the kids.
- How to make more professional use of Twitter
- How to keep the world of the internet manageable for my needs.
- What is podcast and how can I use this to engage students in their learning.
- To feel less overwhelmed by the amount of resources out their, how to refine my search, storing and updating skills.
One more thing that Carly just reminded me about (courtesy of Kim Cofino) is an emphasis on finding the right tools for the job. The more I learn, I feel the more confused as to which tool would be the most suitable to use.
IT Integration in the Classroom 
I too feel that a major task of teachers is to carefully and purposefully select and use web 2.0 multi-media tools (having learned about doing so which I’m still very much in the process of !!). The idea that in the spatial confines of a physical classroom kids can explore a world not so much of information but of multiple evolving prespectives perspective is phenomenol and yet I worry about those who are not wired to do so…..what’s our role for these kidddies?
In this day and age it is hard to think that there are kids who are not wired to all the IT that we are talking about. I have experienced some students like these. I think our role is to try to enable them and to build confidence working with these tools. Not many students will NOT have to be able to function in digital society once they leave school. I do believe it is our role to give them necessary tools to cope with the world in which they live…which means that we do have be in that same place ourselves.
Here is a video on students and educators that you may find interesting.
I can really relate to your sentiment, “The more I learn the more I find I want to know” when it comes to technology. One thing I am hoping for with this class (and it seems to be happening so far) is some time dedicated to “playing” with these tools so I can determine how best to use them. I didn’t even have a twitter account before starting this class and it has already begun to lead me to articles which are relevant to my teaching practice.
At the EARCOS conference two years ago, I went through this mad rush to try everything from Blogging to wiki’s; got my twitter account (but didn’t know how to use it effectively). I got inspired by Alan November talking about the flipped classroom. I was trying everything, but didn’t really know how to use them to their full effect…I still don’t, but really want to find out.
I am hoping to refine my understanding of effective and appropriate use of all these tools we have at out finger tips….and have some fun and get inspiration along the way.