Chpt 10 What It Means (Blogs...)

The last chapter in Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts was more like a chapter from Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology.  Instead of introducing another new tool for the classroom, this chapter was more of a wrap up, hence the title “What It All Means.”  Similar to our other textbook, it talked about the major changes in the education world is partly due to changing technology and the new possibilities for learning.  It states that the most important aspect of education now is for teachers to examine and use all the knowledge effectively.  There are so many new tools, that all provide a huge variety of information.     Teachers cannot just make all of this technology available.  They must conduct enough research to find the most effective tools for learning for their specific students.  For example, if my class is full of visual learners, I would want to include interactive media via a SMART and photo examples via Flickr.  However, a podcast would not be the most effective method of teaching for these students.  But, as I know, not all my class will have the same learning style.  Technology will allow me to vary my instruction to reiterate a concept in a number of different methods.
Another big idea is that education now has the possibility to be collaborative.  This will prepare students for their future career and teaches teamwork.  However, because information is collected, compiled revised, build upon, etc, students need to be more aware of inaccurate information.  The Internet can be a useful tool for research, but students need to actively review all their information for accuracy.  Also, as I said above, with all the information available, it is unrealistic that students will be memorizing as much anymore.  They have valuable tools available at their fingertips.  Instead we need to teach students how to search, collect information, and evaluate it effectively.  These are some of the new ideas what education is moving toward in order to mesh with modern society.  We need to provide students with a more relevant and applicable education than the only outdated option now.