Chapter 5 Professional Development

I believe that the role of technology does have a role in today's classroom (different frame of reference from when I started this course); however, I see co-teachers, principals and perhaps even parents being understanding of technology and how it can be used academically not just for entertainment and social purposes. 

Perhaps a way to get fellow teachers and principals 'hooked' into this new technology may be to begin by using it in staff development, meetings, other opportunities.  If school personal could use wikis, blogs, etc in this manner then they may benefit from seeing not only how effective this technology is but also how easy it is.  If you can 'hook' the teachers, then the students should not be that far behind. 

Another technique to show parents how important the role of technology may play in the classroom would be use a class blog/wiki to share and communicate with parents.  If parents can see the value of these Web 2.0 tools, ten they might be more open and receptive to classroom time being dedicated to the teaching with these tools.

Use of Wordle

Hi All...

I just created a Wordle for my Unit that I'm creating for another class. I've embeded it in my wiki (found here)... Just thought I'd share. After a little trial and error, it was pretty easy.

Glogster/Wiki work in progress

Per Kim's request... Here is a wiki I'm creating for a High School Literature Unit. The opening page is a glog. My final project is also a glog and will post on the class wiki when done...

http://feedyourworld.wikispaces.com/

Use of Wiki's in Education

I have a bunch of different blogs set up on my Reader and this morning as I was skimming them, I found these two interesting articles re: the use of Wiki's in education. Just thought I'd pass them along. The first one from The Journal, is about ways to move the students from passive to active and from a teacher-driven class to a student driven class. The second article comes from The Journal as well and is titled, "3 Challenges to Wiki Use in Instruction."

Just thought I'd share them....