Week One is Over - Did I Learn Anything????

I was very impressed with using Tappedin. I had previously signed up for it but never really used it because I had difficulty navigating through it. This time was different. I had no difficulty navigating the site and I attribute this to the fact that I have actually learned something with all this technology. The tappedin site is where my group has decided to hold our group meetings because it is easy to use and it sends us a transcript of all our meetings when we are done. Archiving our meetings is huge for us because it is done automatically and we done have to even think about it.





We were asked to review the video entitled "Learning to Change and Changing to Learn" and I must say this really caused me to stop and reflect on my own way of thinking.

There were seveal people who discussed what todays students are exposed to in their everyday lives. Discussion centered around the fact that these young people are living in a world that contains a very rich environment outside their school lives. Technology has open up so many possibilites for these students that school seems to be more of a place for social networking and working together in groups rather than the place for data and knowledge gathering. Learning in the 21st century should evolve to allow students to explore their artistic creativity and use teamwork to synthesize and understand the content. Teachers need to adapt to the changing model. In order to do this there must be mechanisms in place to allow teachers to swap the authentic "ingredients" of their teaching with other teachers and be able to collaborate on what works, why and see the prof of their labors. I loved the quote at the end of the video, this is "the death of education but the dawn of learning". What a statement! If we do things right and make use of the technologies available we may lead young people to become problem solvers, thinkers and true learners! I want to be a part of this revolution in education, don't you?


This weeks most memorable moment I think was when the members of my group were trying to figure out how to use google talk during our first meeting. None of us had used it before but that didn't stop any of us from diving in and trying it out. I think that shows that we are willing and able to experiment with new technology without being afraid. Success often comes because we are not afraid to fail.