BLOG REFLECTION #1

After rearing three children and teaching fourth grade for 15 years, I must admit that when I was given the opportunity to become the librarian/media specialist at our elementary school, I was terrified. The prospect was exciting, but I had no idea what that would entail. I agreed to become certified without fully understanding what that would mean. I love children and I love good books, so the job seemed perfect for me…except that I was scared to death of technology! I had managed to perform a few technological duties in the classroom, but I was completely uneducated and technically challenged when I assumed my new position.
Wow! That was four years ago, and I’ve come a long way, baby! I am constantly learning new and exciting ways to enhance learning and instruction with technology. This is my first experience with blogging and I can’t wait to try this with my young students. I envision a blog that my students and I can share to reflect on books they’ve read. One of my favorite things about my job is interacting with students about what they are reading, but there is so little time to do that. I see that blogging would give me the opportunity to hear their thoughts in a nonthreatening environment.
I don’t think we’ve met the potential of blogging that Stephen Downes’ article referred to. One major barrier is teachers like me who feel that they have a lack of technology know-how. We are so busy just doing what we have to do to get by that we don’t take the time to become educated about tools that available for us to use. In actuality, these technology tools would quite often make our jobs easier and much more exciting for our young digital natives.
A quote from Alan November’s article that grabbed by attention states, “Don’t teach children to use the Internet unless you’re willing to teach them to think and discriminate”. The fact that many students feel that any information found on the Internet is true is frightening. I agree that many times we are so intent on teaching them to use technology that we forget to teach the critical thinking skills that are necessary to be able to discriminate between what’s true and not true. I’m glad to learn about Alta Vista, a tool that enables one to check links and check out websites. We must pass this along to our impressionable young students.