article week 17

WEEK 17 article reflection

BLOGS ARE NOT THE ENEMY

My favorite quote from this article is, ‘Blogs are not about writing, they are about a conversation.” I loved this saying! Blogs take journals to an entirely new level and are about connecting with people from all over the world. I think it is so true that teachers use blogs as a storage place for answering questions instead of as a communication network. I was particularly interested in the article’s view that teachers do not give students enough time to read, reflect, and comment on other student’s blogs. The first red flag that comes to mind is monitoring these blogs, however, you could have students tell you if they read any mean blogs. In addition, another great way to further this article is by blogging in cooperative learning groups! Students could be assigned to blog feelings about stories read in cooperative learning groups and reflect and respond to each other’s blogs! I think this would be a great way to bring up classroom and group discussion, after students have already read each other’s ideas and had time to really think about the issues.

ONE TO ONE TSUNAMI.

The information about Maine’s one to one initiative statewide was review from class, however, I was surprised at how many other states are following suit and looking at similar programs. I didn’t realize that the initiative had slowed down with schools in part because of NCLB, however, I was aware that it was now on the rise. The section I found extremely important was to budget the cost of TCO. I have talked to teachers that said although they have a one to one ratio, the computers are either not working, not plugged in, the internet doesn’t work and there is no support staff to help with the problems or update the computers. Teachers are frustrated and don’t use the computers! What a waste! I think it is important to know as much as we can so that each teacher is as technology savvy as possible and this situation does not occur.