Chapter 6 Blog

            I plan to use both wiki spaces and blogs throughout my curriculum. I will use these resources to generate discussion topics and for commenting further on what students may have said in the classroom. I plan to create a wiki for each class and host short discussions based on each week’s reading assignment. Each student could create a blog, similar to this course, and use that as a forum for discussion concerning course-related material. Blogs can be applied to almost any subject to help achieve meaningful learning. According to Crismond, Howland, Jonassen, and Marra, students should “…comment on postings, ask questions, and (do their) research” (113).
            Social bookmarking is a fantastic way to minimize search results and get to the content of the search. It is a great way to quickly share useful websites between teachers and students. I believe social bookmarking helps organize the over-abundant and often irrelevant websites that appear as search results. Social bookmarking will definitely be useful for my students. If a student is struggling with a concept covered in class, I can reference them to an exact website and accommodate to their individual needs. With social bookmarking, this can be done in a really fast. If good and relevant sites have been socially bookmarked, it could be a helpful tool to discover information that you may not have found.

I could incorporate a voice thread into my curriculum but I probably wouldn’t do it often. I could see voice threading being a distraction. I will probably use it as a small assignment, extra credit assignment, or reward for my students. If my students were mature and responsible with voice thread technology, I could find several uses in my curriculum. . I may have my students write a paper over their experiences with voice threading technology if it can be applied to what I need to teach. I think with the age I plan on teaching, it could be more of a distraction than a productive exercise. It could become redundant if too much focus was on voice threading. The students may have the opportunity to get bored or focus more on playing with the technology than learning the material they need to learn

            I have not explored Tapped In but I did read about the learning communities in the book. With information and cultures being integrated at a faster rate via the internet, the authors mentioned there is a great “…need for all citizens to understand and respect other cultures and to be able to communicate with those who are culturally different” (Crismond, Howland, Jonassen, Marra. p.120). These learning communities allow students to experience so many different cultures, places, music, videos, history, and languages in such a short amount of time that removes barriers that helps promote a larger awareness of global communities. This can help the students make connections they may not have made without the knowledge they learn from these communities. This is very important with online learning and technology integrated in to the classroom.

Reference:

Crismond, D., Howland, J., Jonassen, D., Marra, R. M. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology. Columbus: Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.