Eight Weeks

Eight weeks ago I opened by box of books from Walden and took out my new textbook for this class,Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I had heard of blogs, they were ways for people to talk about a topic. I asked myself, "What was a Wiki?" I had used Wikipedia with my students and wondered if this was connected. In my last Walden class another teacher had talked about podcasting with her students but I was still unclear what it meant. I looked at the syllabus and my anxiety grew. I had to create a blog, a wiki, and a podcast, not just read about them in a textbook. I remembered my time in college when I took computer programming classes. The first two were easy, but the third one was hard to understand. Was this how my Walden experience was going to be? The first two classes went along smoothly. Now I was in my third class and would I hit the wall again?

Eight weeks later, I did not hit the wall? I jumped over the wall and plunged into a new world that opened my eyes to new technology out there for me to utilize in my classroom. This course helped me develop my own technology skills in many ways. First, the textbook was informative and easy to use as a guide. Second, the instructor, Professor Smith, was helpful during the course. I liked reading his posts on the discussions because he always added to the discussion and made me think more about the subject. Third, my classmates were supportive in their posts. I enjoyed reading their posts, blogs, and working together on the wiki. Fourth, learning about the 21st century skills was eye-opening and frustrating. It is time to stop focusing upon testing our students and return to teaching our students to learn.

The next step on my journey will be to continue adding Web 2.0 and 21st century skills into my classroom. For the next two years, I plan to focus on blogs, wikis, and podcasts. This year I plan to expand my Zooland interact simulation with a wiki and podcasting. I am in the process of getting gaggle accounts for my students so they can email me and other classmates. I also want to set up a weekly blog that ties to the story in our reading book. My students have low comprehension skills and I want to use the blog to increase their understanding of the story as well as learn from each other. By starting with two subjects, science and reading, and taking small steps to incorporate new ideas into my classroom, room 16 will become a 21st century classroom.