Before this class I had never used Twitter, so that was something new to get used to but it was fun. I had used Facebook, Ning's, and Wiki's before, so I was familiar when we learned more about them. I think that using these kinds of social networking sites and technological pages can be helpful in the classroom. I think students would enjoy being able to go online to do their work because they're always online anyway. I like that through the Facebook Project, we are able to connect with and discuss literature with people from a far. I think if two or however many high school teachers could coordinate their classrooms together, it would be interesting to see how effective it would be. Especially if they were from not only other parts of the country, but other parts of the world. I think all of these new advances in technology and ideas we learned about, that are being used in the classroom can help ours as well as our students communication with others around the world. Though, I think that maybe if we want to have literature circles, we could just walk in to our actual classroom and sit in circles and talk to one another.
I think I've learned a lot through this course, mostly how to be more tech savvy and how to incorporate new ideas into the classroom. When we went over most of the "how to" things that went with each new idea, it was just review, because we've grown up with this technology, so I would hope we know how to use it. Though, I liked learning about the new and different ways of being able to use it effectively in the classroom and for student learning. I thing that throughout this course I learned how to think deeper about things that I read, and not just what I thought at a more "surface" level. I really enjoyed learning about film and I think this is one of the most beneficial things in this course. Usually when teachers play a film in class, it is filler. Now I will be able to have my students analyze the film and do many activities surrounding it, instead of letting them just watch a movie. I also think the multi-genre autobiography was fun and definitely something I will consider incorporating into my own classroom someday. So overall, I think this class gave me some beneficial elements I can walk away with.
Twitter was something I had never used before and it still aggravates me because I don't know how to use it. I don't spend enough time trying to use it to get the hang of it, but it's interesting to see what people around the world have to say. I like to get on mine every once in a while to see what some of the celebrities have to say. That only lasts a minute or two because I don't know how to use it. I can already see the divide of how new Twitter is and how younger aged students probably know how to use it because it is the latest trend and they all want to be in the know.
ReplyDeleteI like the point you bring up about students completing online work. They spend so much time on social networking sites and searching the web maybe if their homework was in this format they would be more likely to do it.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the Facebook project as well. I think it would be really interesting if you could video conference with another class after reading the book. It would help students to be introduced to different types of people and different perspectives.
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