This winter semester is almost over and I am starting to realize how far my students have come in terms of understanding blogging, web 2.0, current trends in technology … basically everything I hoped for them to understand. And now, I am sitting back and enjoying their contributions to the blogging community. Here are a few recent sample posts from my ECMP 355 students.
Jaymie posts a link to a classic “Ma and Pa Kettle” math video, and suggests how she might use the video. Using Youtube in the classroom should be a no-brainer, unfortunately many local school boards have taken measures to ban its use.
Jenna refers to “Facebook in Mourning”, how parents and family of a recently deceased teen have used Facebook as a support forum. Jenna writes, “I think what interested me most is the global reach of this. The internet is able to bring her friends and loved ones together from all over the world. They are able to form a support group to help them get through this tragedy.”
Sarah contemplates the old question of “Mac vs. PC”. It’s great to see students contemplate which technologies to use, rather than still trapped in the “why use technology at all” paradigm.
Tristen discovers Stumble Upon and how to use the Firefox Add-on to use the service. When students first took the course, they knew little upon social computing, open source software, or the importance of such services for education. It’s wonderful to see the discovery and sharing going on.
Vanessa contemplates the effectiveness of PowerPoint as an instructional strategy, discusses technical problems she’s had and writes about her use of videos for class presentations. We’ve come a long way in this course from when I had to teach “how to do PowerPoint”. Now, we can contemplate other modes of instruction related to technology, offer hybrid forms (e.g., wikitations) and discuss the benefits/barriers to each.
These are just the last five posts from my students. I haven’t filtered anything out. While the posts vary in depth and quality, I am very pleased. It’s great to see that these future teachers are knowledgeable about educational technology and becoming impassioned about teaching.
See more ECMP 355 student posts here at this Google Reader page.
Alec,
I’ve been following (somewhat) the progress that your students have been making this year. These end of the year posts show that you and they have done a great job. It gives me high hope for the future of education.
As for your comment about Facebook, it is really very sad and frustrating the number of schools (K-12 and pose secondary) that see the need to block social networking tools.