Finally! They are on.

It has been a long time coming but my students are finally using the wiki. I cannot believe how much time they are spending on the wiki communicating with one another. They are bringing their wiki discussions into class. It is very common for us to have discussions about things that came up because of their interactions online with other students.
There is still a small group of parents and students who are a bit resistant; I haven't given up on them yet, but they are truly missing out on a great learning opportunity. Every student that has a "presence" on the wiki is quite engaged in the topics outside of school, which is extremely valuable, and are really enjoying using this tool.

A New School Year

Well, I'm three weeks into the new school year and things are going very well. Students seem ready to learn and are quite interested so far. I have some technology issues this year in terms of access. Our lab is "under construction" and our Lead IT carts are being fixed as well so it is hard to do the preliminary teaching that I need to do as a large group. It looks like we may be a bit behind in getting started with wikis, blogs and podcasts but I say better late than never. I have a keen group that I think will really benefit from learning about technology and how to use it for things other than entertainment.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

I cannot believe how many students have no idea what a blog, wiki, or podcast is. They are the ones who are supposed to be digital natives, yet they know little or nothing about Web2.0 tools. I agree with many educators who say that we have to start teaching them how to live in the 21st century but they have some responsibility to think beyound MSN and Facebook. How can we make them use these tools for more than just their social lives? I am going to continue to look for anwers and try to include them in my daily teacing practice. Now if I could only book the computer lab...

SummIT IV, April 5, 2008

I attended an IT summit today and it was amazing. Myself and many other educators got together to learn about Web2.0 tools and their application in the classroom. I don't know if everyone will go back and get started right away, but I do know that everyone was awed by the possibilities--some scary, most incredible--that exist. We found out that we are very different from the students we teach; the generation gap grows "exponentially" now. I think even users within similar age groups have major differences amongst them.

On-line collaboration and learning communities will keep popping up on the web and I want my students to have the knowledge to participate effectively in them.

A university professor I had in teachers college, I can't recall her name, told us that we would witness (or be part of) a revolution in the teaching profession. She was right and we are in the early stages of this revolution. But be prepared, because we are moving through it quickly.

I, for one, want to be part of the revolution and use these tools to prepare my students for the reality they presently live in and for the future.

So much to learn...

Now that things are up and running I am looking around the web to see what others are doing. Wow! I am at the very primitive stages of wikis and blogs. Teachers and students are doing some amazing things. Every time I look I see something interesting that I want to try. The reality is that I have to limit myself to mastering a few things before I try the others.
I guess for now I will continue to get students on my wikis and blogspot and encourage them to post. In the future, I want to improve the look of my wiki and blog, learn to embed video, post students work, and get others to link to my spaces.

Response to my wiki

Students are extremely excited to be invited to my wikispace. I sent out a few invitations to test it out and the response was great. I now have kids pleading to be invited. I am a few weeks away, I think, from having all of my classes take part. I've got a geography page in the works for my grade 8 class so if you have anything to add, feel free.

Wikispace for my class

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to create a wiki for my class. I got it working I think, at least at a basic level. The only trouble I think I am going to have is getting kids to sign in. I wonder if their parents are going to be willing to let them set up access to comment and edit pages. Check out my wiki http://mrpspace.wikispaces.com/Mr%20Pelletier's%20Poetry%20Page and tell me what you think.

Thanks.

Getting started

I was at a conference this week and realized that I am a Digital Immigrant. I was informed that the system I work in (education) is trailing far behind and that we aren't preparing our students to work and live in the world they are presently in and will be part of in the future. I want to close the gap between us and start using technology that is readily available to kids at home in my class.

I really need a lot of help. The amount of reading I have to do is crazy and I want to get started right now. I'm going to open a twitter account and try to see if any other teachers are using blogs, wikis, or podcasts in their classrooms and follow their lead for now, until I am more competent. Any help would be greatly appreciated.