here are my responses to:
What is your "plan of attack" for the next school year?
How will you use what you've learned personally, professionally, and pedagogically??
How will you share what you've learned with the other teachers in your district?
What do you still want to learn about teaching and learning in the 21st century and Web 2.0, and how will you acquire that knowledge?
How can we best stay connected as a "PLN" or how can you create a PLN with your colleagues back at your building?
next year? we'll, who knows if i'll have a job or not. but let's pretend for a minute that i will. next question, what will i be teaching? that's anybody's guess, but if things go like previous years, it will be high school science of some type, or more likely 3 or 4 types. regardless, there are certain aspects of technology that i can't see doing without. the use of a class website as a place to put up assignments is essential, so i won't change that. i would like to do more with blackboard, but it's intensive to set up and the learning curve for the students is somewhat limiting, but i still want to do more, so hopefully i'll get the chance. I've really enjoyed using google earth more this year, i'm still going to try and add one more project for the freshmen using it, we'll see how that goes. next year i'll add to what i did this year or maybe go in a dfferent direction. i guess from these 6 hours of inservice, i've learned about a few cool tools that i din't know of or was using something similar to, and i've also seen other applications of tools that ive used before but in a new light. most interesting was the section on the powerpoint sharing.
overall, there are a lot of views that i have on technology in the classroom that come from years of trying different things out, not from ignorance to the technology.
-cell phones (much like politicians) have no place in the classroom.
-free software on the internet cannot compete for attention from students with video games and television shows once they leave the classroom.
-students look at interactive discussion boards as just another assignment or even worse as a place to screw around and be a class clown even outside of the class, but i have had luck with using them in a variety of situations. i think that these type of asynchronous message boards, no matter what form they take, should be incorporated into many more classrooms in a variety of ways.
-I'm still waiting for someone with $$$ to answer the question of what to do about students without access to a computer outside of teh classroom. "just go to the library" is a terrible thing to say to a have-not in front of a bunch of haves. if we truely believe that a free and appropriate public education is a right of all Americans...
-students need more "tech support" from me than ever before. sure they are "digital natives" but the technology changes so quickly and they are so barley engaged that they are often clueless how to solve problems that not understanding how to make a piece of technology work causes.
-most importantly, with all the junk on the internet, we must keep in mind that we have to spend more time than ever teaching students how to be critical of the information that they gather. in our cut-and-paste society, too often people don't follow up information for so called reliable sources (media) and are lead to believe that biased reports are in fact, fact, when they are really not. every class in MHS should have access to primary sources so we don't have to rely on second third fourth hand info.
as far as staying connected, i've been sending emails since '94, back when you had to actually type out the computer code for how to send an email (SMTP...), and after 17 years of digital communication, i can say without a doubt that the best way to stay connected is to meet at the same restaurant and share a dinner together. phones and other digital communication are great ways to set up meetings with other people, but should never replace them.
anyway, thanks to everyone who put together this PD and those who I've interacted with while working on it. It is always great to hear other peoples opinions and see how other teachers are solving teh same problems that I am facing.
