I met my students today…finally. Our first day was the King holiday, so I’ve been communicating via email with them. It was nice to get to see them face to face. I hope they got my main point: using technology in education is about balance, balancing safety and access and making decision about using technology that support teaching and learning. As part of the course, I ask them to keep a weblog. I appreciate its use as a reflective tool. I had them use edublogs this semester, and I set up my own. I’m going to use it as a space to reflect on teaching this course. I’ve taught it for five or six semesters now and almost never done it the same way. This semester, I’m really trying to get away from the techno-centric, technical approach.
The course is called Designs for Technology Enhanced Learning. In this two-credit course, pre-service teachers learn about technology: a 21st century AV course. You can view the course wikispace here: http://ed330.wikispaces.com.
So, how about today’s class? First, I talked way too much. I asked them to bring their laptops and then talked so much we had no go reason to use them. I guess it was the first class so I felt like I had big picture stuff to share with them, sort of themes to consider as we move through the semester. OK: that sounds like a reasonable excuse.
Now, what about next week?
I want to get them involved in the course site. I’ll at least get them to join wikispaces and then maybe have them add their comments about what they “heard” in class this week. I don’t want to give them too much work to do, but I want them to engage with technology in between our class meetings as well as during class.
Next week is basically Web 2.0 and collaboration. I’m going to send them my Netvibes tabs to encourage their own collaboration. I’m asking them to join Classroom 2.0 and poke around.
I feel like every teacher everywhere: there just isn’t enough time!
