New tools
How funny, I just finished reading chp 3 in Web 2.0 and using tools such as Photo Story is mentioned which I just used yesterday for the first time yesterday! What a coincidence.
Though the beginning of this chapter was a little confusing for me because it used a lot of jargon that I am not familiar with (Ajax, aggregators), it did do an adequate job of explaining the terms to uneducated folks such as myself. But the really interesting part of the chapter dealt with all the wonderful and free services that are available to educators to bring technology into the classroom. And not just using technology for the sake of using it; actually using things students use in their everyday lives and turning into a tool for an authentic learning experience. While I am familiar with blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, and wikis (thanks to ITEC 501) and I am a confessed addict of You Tube, I did not know about web-based word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. Though are definitely something I am going to explore further because Microsoft Office is really expensive. It wouldn’t surprise me if many students didn’t have it at home.
I think I had two WHOA moments when reading this chapter. The first was when I read about the idea of ePortfolios. I know from my literacy classes that I definitely want to have my students keep a portfolio of work samples. It’s just a sound idea. And I have an ePortfolio of my work in ITEC 501. But it honestly never occurred to me to have my own students do the same. That would cut out the problem I was having of storing all those binders or files I would need for my students’ work. And students can take more responsible for maintaining their portfolios because they could also access it from home and work on it. The second was when I read about Google notebook. What an excellent way of saving notes of information you find online. I can’t believe I haven’t found out about this sooner. The only thing I want to look into more before I let my students use it is whether or not it also saves the page where you found the text. That would be needed for citation.
The authors mentioned that they were currently working on a companion book that will showcase real-world lessons. That is something I will definitely invest in!