Dene and Proud wordle

My Wordle Experience once again.....

This was actually fun to make. I think I would like to try this with my Communications Studies students. Their wordles can consist of words relating to communicating and each of them will look different. I only wish that I could print them out when they are done. Our computers in the lab are not hooked up to any printers. Their work cannot be saved on the computers too.

It is amazing how I have gotten over my fear of mouse clicking. I am not the expert, but as a teacher, I will find new approaches, new tools to support the learning in a different way as Marnie says in her podcast. Why deprive students of the opportunity to learn something new?

Still from Lucy Gray's blog

http://www.infinitethinking.org/

This site has numerous videos on how to implement the many web 2.0 tools that is available for educators to use in their classrooms with their students. As I was viewing some of the videos I was hit with this thought. Why is it that I, as an educator always thought that I was not 'smart' enough to do any kind of computer teaching in my classroom? I always thought that the 'experts' like the computer teachers were the only ones who were 'smart' enough to teach a lesson using computers or about computers. I have certainly debauched that thinking as I sit here at my laptop 'cruising' the Internet. I can honestly say that this is one teacher who is not scared to click a mouse and view the world at my fingertips. Thanks to all the teachers out there who are willing to step out of their comfort zone for the betterment of our students.

Lost Generation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA&eurl=http://passionatelycurious.typepad.com/passionately_curious/&feature=player_embedded

I thought that this video was pretty neat. I enjoyed the poem in reverse more than I did reading it from the top. As educators, we have to be so careful what we tell our students about their future. We seem to believe that our future generation will become self-destructive,but I have heard Aboriginal say that we, the present generation are the ones who are not thinking of our children's future. They say, that there is a generation in the future who will be the most powerful generation of all. They will save this earth from destruction. I do not have any problems with technology as it is today. I use it daily and so do many other people in this generation today. There are more and more improvements in every way possible. We are curing diseases that were once thought to be incurable. The only question I have is this; With all the technology we have in this world today, why is it we cannot save our DENE language from distinction? What is it that we have to do today so that my great grand children will be speaking it fluently? What types of technology can be 'invented' so that our Aboriginal language will not become obsolete?

In moving from theory to practice, what does the use of technology look like as teachers enact a provincial curriculum that promotes a constructivist

“Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its environment.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology

It has always been my belief that students learn best when they engaged and using manipulatives or moving from theory to practice. My students have always remembered the times they either travelled to Saskatoon to see a play written by a playwright that they studied in their English Language Arts 20 class or made a fire in the forest behind the school to cook bannock on a stick in Food Studies 30 after studying the best way to cook bannock. The use of technology is going to be a great asset in our schools. Teachers have to realize the importance in their classroom as well as the school boards and all funding agencies that may be called upon for financial assistance. The biggest gain for the students will be the fact that they will be given opportunities to make choices and hopefully take interest in their own learning and their abilities.

How do theories of learning such as constructivism and/or connectivism help you better understand how to use/integrate technology into teaching and le

I understand how important it is today to use and integrate technology in our teaching and learning as I stated in one of my earlier postings. My views have not changed nor have they altered. I started asking my students to email me their written assignments before Christmas and it has carried on today. They did some internet research in Food Studies and some of them emailed me the links that they researched on and it was easier for them. Constructivism and connectivism theories of learning have definitely helped me to understand this importance of technology inclusiveness in our teaching. I understand constructivism to mean my students’ behavior towards new concepts as being a scaffold. They begin to use this new knowledge with prior knowledge and make connections between the two to include way that this new knowledge can help them in their present situations. As for connectivism, it’s all about half knowledge and the chaos theory. What we know today was not known to us ten or so years ago and therefore what we know today will be obsolete ten or so years from. We have to provide a network learning process for our students. The word is “integrate”. It seems that as teachers we need to find ways of integrating this knowledge to real life in the practical sense. I like the fact that as teachers we need to let go of our authoritarian roles and become less dictorial. We should instead foster learning where we allow students to find connections and network learning as they see fit.

What beliefs about teaching and learning are most conducive to the viable use of technology in education?

This is my third try at this post....Where did the other two go? Is there a crematorium somewhere in cyberspace that has cremated my postings?