Book Trailers

I currently have an English teacher who requires a book report from her students once per month, but she determines the genre of the book. She wants to expose her students to a variety of genres so they don’t become stuck in a particular genre. I immediately bookmarked the site 10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports. Being forced to read an unappealing genre may be enhanced when the project is different from writing a report. Digital storytelling seems to be the up and coming format of book reports. Thoughts, feelings, interpretations, and other aspects of a report must be consolidated in a small time frame. There is no time for fluff. I can’t help but wonder that once all the kinks of these projects are working out (i.e. initial organizing, creating rubric) grading becomes easier. The criteria of a rubric are met in a two minute video instead of a ten page paper that, as previously mentioned, could contain a lot of fluff. Crane’s article shows us the intricacies of digital storytelling. A great project is not about visual effects but the emotions and lessons of the work.

Blogging

A quote in the Zawilinski really stuck with me. At one point she references a source that said, "Some believe that we simply need to place computers in the hands of our students, and they will learn what they need." Computers are so much more, and they have so many applications that students need to be shown how to use. The world has become more globally aware and connected, so it only makes sense that we take the time to teach our students how to interact with the world by using blogging and other Web 2.0 tools. Social networking sites allow us to have "friends" who live down the street or on the other side of the world. Blogging also allows the classroom discussions to continue when the class has ended. When I was in school, I hated to have a class end when the discussion was so rich. Setting up a blog allows for students to continue the discussion after the 40 minute period. Many teachers don't have the time anymore to teach students how to write, and the process of blogging may allow for those lessons. Feedback is not only given by teachers but by other students in the classroom and participants from around the world.Yes, there are online security issues, but those are times to teach about Internet safety. Younger and younger students have Facebook pages and are involved in social media, so it is never too young to teach about the values and hazards of an online world.

Balancing Technology

As Mishra and Koehler noted, people tend to define technology differently depending on when they were born. I'm sure my 85 year old grandma and I have different views on what technology is. She hasn't the faintest idea how to text or tweet, but these are things that I can do with little difficulties. There are times when I'm torn between what I can do with my smart phone and what I used to do before I had it. I have countless recipe apps, but I still love flipping through a cookbook finding a recipe. In the NY Times article, Ms. Furman has her class write out what they love using a pen and paper. I still have a calendar and little notepad to write things down despite having the access to the apps on my iPhone. As educators, it is difficult to find a balance between what the students have access to and the tried and true methods of teaching. It becomes more difficult when money plays into the development of technology programs and classrooms. In Buffalo, many teachers have been laid off in recent years, but we've found the money to do countless projects. All schools are, or are in the process of, being fully updated with smart boards, projectors, state of the art science labs, and other technological advances. Last year, the district piloted a program replaced laptops with netbooks, and after negative feedback, the project has been abandoned. In the coming years, those teachers who received a netbook will get a new laptop. I do know that many of these funds come from grants, but it would be nice to see grants found to pay for the staff to see that these technologies are being properly implemented into the classroom so learning is enhanced. It would certainly be easier to teach a class of 22 children how to blog instead of a class of 30, but as technology keeps changing so will the challenges that we face.