An intense, exhilarating and creative course. Everyday there are new resources to explore, in-depth discussion and collaboration with colleagues, referencing to concepts and pedagogy, informative and exciting presentations to listen to. My ICT skills have definitely advanced as I am immersing myself in my new MacBook Air after years on a PC and am navigating all the forms of collaboration within our group through bogs, forums, and tweets. I have been inspired by many of the different presentations and I am trying to be mindful of which ones I want to explore for this coming year while creating a list of others to revisit later.
After Michelle’s presentation on blogging I saw an opportunity to take my class communication to parents to another level through a class website. I am eagerly creating a class website on Weebly that has allowed me to incorporate many links and ideas into a more interactive space with a blog page too. Under homework I have included a multi-linked toolbox as well as a quiz of a week link through Google Drive that will be updated each week and results discussed in class. This morning I have been working on a Good Books page with links to the local library, a local book store reviews and a Shelfari that I created with the hopes that students will add to the books and reviews there. Alongside this I am working on my inquiry project exploring policy conditions in my District and am presently using a spreadsheet in Google Drive to add in all the SWOT information collected from teachers by the district in regards to ICT.
The future is full of possibilities as I have been asked to present my project at the School District. I am working towards publishing my class website ready for September. I have been invited to join the Pro D committee and hope to be able to explore positive ways to enable all teachers to use ICT in meaningful ways in their practice. I am joining a pre existing book club to continue the conversation with colleagues. Within my class I hope to explore a possibility of incorporating book trailers, Geocaching, Phylomon and Project Noah into the year. I want my ICT to be meaningful for the students within an inquiry based model. As I will be continuing my studies on line I hope stay connected with people in this learning group as we move forward on our journey together.
Petra,
I am impressed with your ambition! It sounds like you are making technology work for you, instead of the other way around.
Our discussion about digital libraries early in the week has stuck with me too. I think a balance of both is necessary. Digital libraries have great benefits: access from anywhere, you can use books from around the world, not limited by physical storage space. But like you, I think real, physical libraries in our communities are vital. Both as place to experience tangible connections with books, and as community gathering places, where anyone can have access to the internet and materials to read. In the public library (and hopefully the school library) everyone is equal, we all have access to the same information, regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, etc.
The article about Amazon’s library service was a bit scary, but I am hopeful since it was published two years ago and nothing has happened yet. But if we have to fight for libraries we will!
Wow. Petra, you are really motoring along! I see you are expanding your professional horizons, developing your technological skills and implementing research theory into practice. Yes, there is are infinite possibilities for educators out there. The first challenge was getting educators to engage with the infinite possibilities without leaving them feeling anxious and unhinged from the familiar. The second challenge is developing professional practices of deliberation to discern what is useful, valuable, and innovative. What can we do, as educators, to foster creativity, criticality, collaboration and communication in an educational system that is still struggling to pull itself out of 19th century industrialism? The third challenge is to facilitate professional educators’ learning and leading capacities. Our burgeoning uses of digital technologies are being shaped in a leaderless vacuum. There tends to be this blame on ‘young people’ and ‘children’ for their uses of digital technologies that appear anti-social or unhealthy, but there is no commensurate effort to ensure our next generation is being adequately prepared.