Reflection 2

It has been interesting to learn about various technology tools that are readily available today. Blogs are a great way to express and share views, as well as learn what others are thinking. Podcasts bring in the added element of video and sound. That can be quite useful, depending on the task in question. Wikis are a wonderful collaborative tool that seem to incorporate facets of both blogs and podcasts, but also allows for the creation of a finished product produced collaboratively online by various people. It lends itself easily to research or interdisciplinary assignments where students focus on one aspect and contribute what they learn to the group. Social bookmarking was totally new to me. It is a tool that I will probably utilize more because it allows me to keep track of online resources in an organized and categorized fashion. I can see it being a great resource, especially as I add my own preferred sites.

Wikis

I enjoyed learning about wikis. There are a lot of potential uses in the educational setting. It is ideal for an interdisciplinary project where classes from diverse subjects can contribute to it! It seems easy to use as a contributor as well as the administrator/teacher.

Reflection on Podcast Sites

It was very interesting to peruse the various sites and try to find a use for its content in my classroom. I did not see an immediate application from Next Vista. Teacher Tube seemed promising in this respect, but the amount of ads was disappointing. I would probably not choose to find anything there due to the time wasted with the advertisements. At School Tube, I searched for Spanish videos and many came up. This was encouraging, until I started viewing them. They consisted mainly of student performances that had been videotaped. Although I could obtain some ideas from the tasks the kids were doing, I wouldn't use the videos in the classroom. As far as You Tube goes, there were lots of resources and it was very easy to navigate and view what I wanted to see. I would definitely use this site, and I already have on several occasions.

Reflection 11/27/09

Classroom blogging opens up a whole new area for learning and practice. A major benefit I find to blogging is that it extends contact with the subject matter and class interaction beyond the classroom. It gives students the opportunity and responsibility to work and interact with classmates on the topic beyond the limited meeting times of class.
I have used my moodle site to extend a discussion on a specific topic we were working on (current events: the war in Iraq) and have students give their opinion on the war, in Spanish, and comment on classmates' views, in English.

Welcome

This blog has been created for the online course I'm taking. I'm looking forward to sharing with colleagues!