Rather than tell you that you can set your internet start page by going to the page you’d always like to begin with (I love the weather, so I use www.noaa.gov pre-set to Chatham’s weather) by opening your browser and clicking Tools > Options and clicking “Use Current Page,” I’d like to offer a little advice.
I’m at a workshop today about using blogs and wikis with students. Dr. Erica Boling at the Rutgers CESP is explaining these web 2.0 tools and the many ways teachers can use them, but there are a number of glazed eyes, and we’re only an hour-and-a-half into the workshop! Sometimes, talking about all the things we can do with technology can seem overwhelming because we start off with a myriad of tools available for us to use, and then just as you get comfortable with one tool, something more interesting comes along!
How do we allow our students to use new web technologies but not go overboard or become overwhelmed? The best answer is to limit your projects! It’s not necessary to have students blog every day all year. Every assignment does not have to be submitted through a wiki. All reports do not have to be done in PowerPoint.
Answering questions on a blog for a short time (one unit, every other month, after each vacation, etc.) is a way to limit your time in front of a screen. Like PowerPoint? How about only one or two student-created presentations in the year? Maybe it would be good to sprinkle in some Notebook use on the part of the students and ask them to create a lesson to use in class. Multimedia? What if only two or three students were your Audacity Authorities and taught others how to record what happened in class this week? When the recording was done (entirely by the students of course), you simply have to upload it to your website.
Like doughnuts, cheeseburgers, and video games, “everything in moderation” is the mantra. There will come a time when the majority of what we do will be done with electronics, but until we can put a computer in every students’ hands, we need to be realistic about how many technology-related projects are done throughout the year, or how comprehensive a project is.
One example that comes to mind is using a blog to have students discuss a book. Let’s pretend you’re reading a novel with your class, and you want the students to respond to a question about a character for homework. As an elementary teacher, you might have 25 entries to read–a middle school teacher may have 100 to read! Why not limit the responses by having five students respond to Monday’s question then discuss it in class on Tuesday? On Tuesday, the next five students respond to your next question online for homework. Again, use your SMART Board to show their responses in class on Wednesday and discuss with the whole class.
We cannot escape the need to integrate technology, but we can manage what we choose to use. Maybe spend your time getting good at wikis for one year. How about a blog the following year? Multimedia the next year?
Take a deep breath, relax, and sign up for a new blog account!