Reflection on the Web 2.0 Workshop

WOW. It has been a truly amazing two and a half days. My brain is spinning. I have not learned so many cool things in such a short time and I realize that things keep evolving faster and faster. I am 5 to 6 years away from retirement and I don't want to retire. Either that or I will retire and go back to school full time.

Del,icio.us looks like a very good resource to give to students and teachers. I like the idea of your resources being accessible from anywhere in the world. Plus as students build a list of resources they can have it after they graduate from high school and teachers can have it if they move to a different district.

box.net is another resource that I want all of the district staff to utilize. What a great way to get access to the files you want from anywhere.

Blogging - I really want to try this with fifth grade students this year. See my previous post about the idea I have for using blogging with students in our district.

Blogline - Great to have a place to have the information that you want come to while you are doing other things and to have other people do the work for you.

Wiki - I would like to use this with our Technology Committee and introduce it to different departments/groups within our district. Not sure I will use this with students.

One thing that I want to do is to create staff development on these tools, but I need way more practice before I do that.

I just with that this workshop could go on for two weeks, it is hard to internalize everything that we have learned in just four or five days. I need more practice with all of these tools.

What else would I like to learn???? Flickr, visual literacy.

How can I use blogging in my district

Our district has one large 3-5 school with around 500 students. The district also has two small rural schools, one has grades K-5 with about 50 students total, and the other one is 3-5 with about 100 students total. The first time that all the students are together in one school is when they are sixth graders. What I would like to do is to create a blog for the fifth grade students to discuss what they think sixth grade will be like, what they are afraid of, and what they are looking forward to. I would like to create links between the fifth grade students so that fifth grade students from the small schools will not feel isolated when they go to the middle school. I would also like to have them discuss what they are learning and doing in their individual classrooms. I guess the whole point is for students in the same grade in the same district to get to know each other and what it is like going to small schools versus a large school and hopefully lesson the fears they have about moving to the middle school. I would like to get the fifth grade and sixth grade teachers to comment on the blogs of the students. This would also get the students to know other fifth grade teachers and sixth grade teachers. I think it would be very good for the teachers to know what the students are thinking about as they move from one school to another.

Square Peg, Round Hole

How can the use of technology become an integral part of education? Our district keeps talking about creating a “Learning Community”, but I think the idea most administrators have for this is to read a book and then discuss it in small groups within the district. Our teachers have even a smaller view of how this is supposed to be done by thinking it is their grade level or department. The idea that one could communicate with the entire world and get ideas from everywhere has not entered their world. Using technology in education to expand resources and horizons is not there yet. I believe that administrators and teachers need to have staff development in how to use blogs and the other things that we are learning in this class. Students will and have learned these on their own and now the educators need to learn how to use the Web 2.0 tools. Educators cannot use something that they know nothing about. It is not necesarily that teachers will not use Web 2.0 tools but they do not even know what exists. How can you use something that you don't even know exists? A part of NCLB should be NELB (No Educator Left Behind).


How important is the education of our children? Is our society willing to put dollars into training/retraining educators? Should educators work all year with at least one month devoted to staff development? When will the nation stop blaming teachers and starting giving them tools so they can succeed and move into the 21st century? Secretaries in our district have better computers (newer, faster) then our students and teachers. Teachers only have 180 days with students and they do not want to give up those days to go to training. I cannot blame them. Time is another factor and curriculum that teachers do not want to let go. Cursive writing is an example of something that used to be important, but I do not believe it is anymore. Teaching needs to be a full year job, with time added for teachers to learn new skills.

Our technology has changed how every one of us can learn and commmunicate. Educators need to learn these skills.