Last day reflection

It was very interesting to see former program participants speaking about how they use technology in their classrooms.

I really liked the skyping teacher's view on cell phones: use them as an incentive for other things and only call out their use when they are getting distracting. This reminds me of when I was observing a middle school class. The students were making clay streams to investigate the 'law of the v's.' One group was making a very fancy stream and was taking pictures of it with their cell phones. The teacher could have done something like the teacher in one of the first articles we read - put the pictures up for the whole class to see in order to encourage good work. But, alas, the students only seemed to be distracted by their phones and didn't learn much more by having them there.

The other idea I thought was really good was having facebook 'office hours.' What a clever way to use facebook! If the students are going to be on the internet anyway, and let's be honest - a lot of us teachers use facebook plenty as well - then specifying a time for students to ask questions seems like a great way to be available for students. This is definitely something I would consider trying in my own class.

In general it was also nice to see former program participants who had jobs! It was awesome to see that some of them were taking leading roles (such as an informal tech specialist) and it made me get excited about where all of us will be in a year. Cheers!

PS Trying to post this on a computer that only had Internet Explorer made me remember how frustrating technology can be, and how important keeping up with new tech is.