Chapters 1 & 2

Reading Response to Chapters 1 & 2 in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson

When reading these two chapters, there were two things that really resonated with me as an educator. The first, on page 8, was the subtitle "Learners as Teachers." It was very comforting to see the author write that, "not every teacher needs to start a blog or create a wiki or a podcast." However, as educators we do have a responsibility to understand that these tools can be very powerful in learning. The thought of creating a blog, wiki, podcast, etc. is very overwhelming. This chapter helped me to realize that we are learners, just as our students are, and it we take it one step at a time we will see what these tools can do for the students in our classroom. This makes it seem much more manageable and much less overwhelming!

Secondly, when reading page 23, E-Portfolio, I thought about the implementation of E-Portfolios in my classroom. Our current portfolio system (binder and paper EVERYTHING) can be very frustrating, time consuming, and difficult to manage. I never seem to have time to file anything, and it's always so stressful at the end of the year to get the portfolios organized and passed on to the next teacher. I would love to learn more about using weblogs and E-Portfolios to document and keep track of student work in the classroom. I can see many benefits to doing this- not only to keep myself more organized but to also have a portfolio that can be shared via the internet so that parents can be viewing their child's portfolio on a regular basis.

In exploring some of the links mentioned in chapter one, I thought that the Weather Recipe Book created on Flickr by Richardson's daughter was another example of the many ways technology can be used as a tool to make learning more interactive for students. In the one week that we've been in this class, my eyes have been opened to just a few of the many ways technology can be used as a learning tool, and I am amazed! Between this and the blog post of First Graders Using iPads, I am beginning to learn about the variety of ways technology can be used in the classroom, even with very young students.