Ponderings..the technology revolution

In the last six months I have really enjoyed watching the ongoing conversations with educators and the media as to how we as a community are embracing technology and what is the best way to go about it. At times in history there must have been great  groaning sounds as man attempted to work out how this technology was somehow going to enhance our lives. Electricity, the car, radio, telephones and movies with sound are some of the things that come to mind. Teachers and educationalists are in general a very creative and innovative bunch who themselves have grappled with and conquered new technology and further used it to enhance the learning outcome for students for many thousands of years. We are part of something great and valuable. For this I am grateful and I feel now more than ever that no man is an island and there is genuine support for teachers within a global community that is growing faster than ever before. How exciting to be part of mankind's technology revolution.

 Social media informs and connects where no connection had been made before and existing technologies continue to develop and spread. Skype for instance changed the access for teachers, schools and classrooms to connect on a large and global scale that has not been seen before. I look forward to engaging with students and teachers in a wide variety of technologies and excitedly watch in great anticipation where it will take me next. 

Last week I was blogging about Techy Work Stations. They went really well. However there are often problems that occur when engaging with new technology. I didn't realise that I had a few class members under 18 and they could not access Youtube or Twitter. The blog I set up on the Google site didn't allow them to make a post so I quickly changed tack and we started a Twitter stream. Those student who could join in did and the others continued work they could have access to. All in all I felt it went well. There are always teething problems when starting something new and I kept my cool and know for next time to fix this prob. 

I am still trying to keep my dream alive of running my own business and helping other teachers use technology classroom that is affordable, easy to use and engaging for students. Met up with Tracey B again from Level Playing Field and are getting close to finishing this logo. Have decided on color and layout and we are just getting to down to the line. 






This week I really want to focus on encouraging students to ask good questions. This week we will continue examining poems, reports and research essays and I don't want to do all the prompting. I would like to be more of a coach and facilitator and am going to try a few new strategies to get students to develop good questions amongst themselves.


Have been mega busy and time poor this week so I'll save up my favorite links for next week. 


Hope you all have a great week and I do really appreciate the time you take to read my blog. 


Until next week,
K