21st Century Skills

I know it seems contradictory to blog about not really loving blogs, but I can’t help it.  A week ago I had never read a blog. I value a beautifully bound book that smells faintly of the library, or a magazine filled with pages I can actually turn, not tabs I can click. I love sending a letter to my mom every once in a while, and receiving one back written in her perfect hand. Unfortunately, in the 21^st century I chat with my mom on facebook and the only one who writes a letter to me anymore is my grandmother (Thanks, Nanni G!)

I guess even I have to admit that there is some beauty in a blog, voice. I would recommend schools use blogs to give students a voice. One of my students confessed to me that she writes a poetry blog, and has been since last year.  I can only imagine what a community of poets can learn from each other. I think that as students collaborate across great time and space on topics they love, they redefine learning. Gone are the days where only the teacher teachers.  Everyone is a teacher now. Everyone is a learner.

One thing I’d like to see is a community of bloggers dedicated to building a better school climate. They would wind up using their problem solving skills to create a set of standards for behavior. They’d have to be innovative as they strive to promote their ideas to each other; they’d have to weigh the benefits of each suggestion and come to a consensus on their goals for the year.  I think that an outlet to communicate with administrators and teachers would give students a sense of ownership. Also, as they interact with adult models, they sharpen their skills in talking with (and like) an adult, an ever necessary job skill.

I suppose, for now, I will focus on the voice it gives to our 21^st century learners, and embrace the freedom it gives students to customize their learning.

Teachers Using Blogs

I am having trouble seeing how my school would use blogs in the near future. Access to computer labs tends to be a great difficulty. As the focus on technology grows, we as educators try to implement new technology based projects into our lessons. This wonderful move forward has created congestion in our LMC and computer labs, which means students coming in the LMC during their study hall time have limited access to work on projects at school.

If these challenges were to magically disappear, I would hope to see my school use blogs to provide an academic based social network where kids could ask and answer their own questions about the things they learn in class. I am always impressed by the students who ask high level questions and strive to contemplate answers on their own. I think blogs could create a community of students who are interested in taking things to higher level of investigation.  Sometimes I feel as if the gifted and talented students in our schools are looking for more educational opportunities. Perhaps blogs would create such an outlet.

Subscribing

In my search for some blogs to follow, I found one blog called "Beth's thoughts on technology" at http://www.bethknittle.net/wp_blog?p=875#comments.   In reading some of the archives of this blog, as well as current postings to this blog, I found the writer of the blog to be well written and inventive. I will probably use this blog to consult when I need some creative ideas for technology in my own classroom.

I also fund another blog called Literature Compass at http://literaturecompass.wordpress.com/. The address I have included is to a home page, but there are a number of interesting articles and blogs to read. I think I would use this as a resource when looking for creative ideas in teaching literature, specifically Shakespeare and Romanticism.

What do I want?

I would like to become more familiar with the same technologies that my students like to use or would enjoy using. I would also like to explore tools that might be helpful for online instruction. Our school is signed up for Moodle and I have my own online classes, but I don't actually utilize them to their fullest potential. I have created things for classes in the past using audacity, but I still don't feel comfortable using the program on my own.