Learning and Technology

As I read through the two chapters I realized that beyong the multiple intelligences, there is a plethera of ways that humans learn. I enjoyed how chapter one talked about learning in so many different aspects and what the implications of the teachers as well as the student is in all these learning situations and environmetns. Technology teaches us, and we teach technology, so it goes around and around .
Chapter 4 dealt with many forms of learning communities and it's amazing how much is really out there that is unused by educators and students alikle. Communities all around us can provide so much knowledge and learning for teachers and students that we can learn together. I learned new technology language and many new forms of technology that can be used and atleast looked at to use in my classroom and by students to expand their horizons and their wealth of knowledge. I do agree that emails are a wonderful things, as well as online chatting, but you do tend to lose that social contact, as well as eye contact, tone, and voice pitch. Do you really know what the person is trying to say or portray as they are saying it? Are they yelling? Are they being sarcastic?
Some of the technology out there (CaMILE and Swiki) confused me, but sound quite interesting.
What a wonderful world we live in that learning every day is a valued experience and it will only grow on from there.

My Tech Tale

As I read the Tech Tales in the handout, I thought about all the same things they did. Using electric typewriters and writing simple problems that allow you to see something over and over again on the screen. My biggest tech tale though has been through teaching and how technology has changed over the course of the last 10 years. It has all started when I was teaching kindergarten and the students used the computers to play on Reader Rabbit and Math Munchers and it taught and reinforced reading and math that I did in class. Then I taught third grade where they used the computers to type up essays and reports, and to take reading tests for the books they read. This was when I realized that they loved the computers and being on them, so I started to teach them how to make a power point presentation. Because we only had two computers in our classroom at the time, I assigned two students per week to work on their powerpoints during any free time that they might have had and they loved creating them and sharing them (I believe they made power points all about themselves). Then when I moved into fifth grade and had access to the COWS (computers- laptops- on wheels), I began to bring technology into some other lessons...me using powerpoints to teach a lesson, and then creating power points to reinforce lessons. Using it to create word documents, or spreadsheets, have been brought into all other subjects from social studies & current events to publishing essays, and problem solving in math. I love that fact that every year of teaching, I still have the same curriculum, but teach it in so many different ways with the help of the latest technology.

Blogging

I was playing around and noticed that my name is on some blogs and not others, and I am not sure why. I'm still not quite sure how this all works, and I hope I can play around some more and figure it out. Blogging isn't as easy as everyone makes it seem and yet people do this everyday for any reason. Hmm..I'll get it sooner or later :)

Class

Well class was an adventure tonight. It seemed as if nothing was going right for any of the computers. Not everyone's blog account worked, so we are having a wonderful technology experience. I liked being able to set up my own blog, and I am curious as to if I could set one up for my class, or whether or not I would have issues with the children and language. I do think it would be cool if the kids could access and make a comment atleast just once a week of what they were learning or what they want to learn or discuss or do or whatever (nice run on sentence :)!)
Looking forward to more blogging :)