Down another rabbit hole!
My information conglomerate is complete, or at least as complete as it is going to be now. I have a list of articles that I still want to read, which I’m sure will give me more information to add, but I must cut off research now so I can focus on the project.
Today in class we discussed considering our audience. In my mind, my target audience is primary teachers in my district, who have used, or would like to use ICT in their class. I envision them as teachers who are open to using technology, but might be hesitant about where to start and are looking for ideas. I am also hoping they are willing (or can be persuaded by workshop) to integrate technology in innovative ways, not just using technology to do the same thing a different way. I know that not all teachers will fit this criteria, some will be the ones at schools who just got iPads and they want to know good apps. I am hopeful that I can convince them to think about the learning objectives before thinking about the apps. Some of the participants may be teachers who already have blogs in the district, in which case the BuddyPress platform, which looks very similar to WordPress, will be familiar to them. Also, because the collaboration space will be hosted by the district, I assume the login will be the same as the one for blogs, making it even easier for them.
I started looking at BuddyPress today, trying out a theme and some widgets. Wordpress has lots of options, but I haven’t spent much time customizing my class blog. The theme I have for it is quite limited, and once it was set up, I only thought about my posts. BuddyPress has even more options, since it is a social network platform. I started looking at changing options and making pages, but feel like I don’t really know what I am doing. I am feeling frustrated by my own limitations, instead of by the technology, which is a change for me. At least I got a few people to join my network (thanks Kristine, Michelle, and Charlotte!) so I have multiple contributors. Tomorrow I need to break this big project down into tasks, figure out what is most important and start there.
It is gratifying to see you tackle the issue of primary education and the incorporation of ICT. During my research, the primary teacher candidates were the ones that were most adamant that there was no place for ICT in primary education. I wondered where they got that mindset. Do you know? I am curious to trace the formation of that opinion. As we are talking during the course, it is becoming more important that students learn to use ICT for learning and develop healthy ICT learning habits early in their acadmic careers. By the time they are expected to read to learn, they are also expected to be able to use ICT to learn, as part of their reading activity.