The Moss-Free Stone

Survived the first one! Over-prepared, to be sure–had waaaay more info than I could cover in the hour-and-a-half time slot, but managed to cram most of it in. The group was receptive, and their comments afterwards were encouraging.

One area that generated some great questions was copyright and fair use. We talked about the need to use materials that were not copyrighted or for which permissions had been granted. Also, I stressed the importance of teaching students how to properly summarize, take notes, and cite resources.

Another thing I hope I conveyed adequately was the ability of blogs, wikis, video sharing, et al to do things with technology that simple productivity tools do not allow. Rather than simply replacing pencils and paper, these tools enable the user to create, collaborate, publish, interact, and more, and do all of this with a potentially world-wide audience. As Bernajean Porter describes it, to use technology in a transforming way.

After the session, teachers blogged their reactions (JUMP blog). Learned that Safari and Blogger don’t always play well together (and I thought those Macs were the perfect machines!).

During lunch, we are hearing from an avid blogger, Barry Green. His is a great example of a blog where the owner is a master of generating thoughtful and, sometimes, heated debate, simply by throwing a topic against the wall and seeing if it will stick. It is an entertaining read, to be sure!

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