It never really occurred to me that these CAP blogs are innovative to our school system of education, and represent our era. Blogs have become a standard of life; many of my friends don't know what life would mean if there weren't Tumblr, or Rookie Magazine. Will Richardson appreciates this. In Richardson's article "World Without Walls:Learning Well With Others", he rallies to teachers to employ a more internet based method in their teachings. Richardson infers that using skype, facebook, google blogs and tools, and other interactive websites will encourage students to be more inclined to do projects. Otherwise, students will remain lethargic to obsolete teaching lessons.
Will Richardson writes to teachers. In doing so, he enlightens the student reader that teachers can be just as confused to their own lessons as they. Richardson appeals to the teenage internet user, and the mentality of the internet age in explaining that "much of what our students learn from [teachers] is unlearned once they leave [the teachers]; paper is not the best way to share [people's] work, facts and truths are constantly changing, and working together is becoming the norm, not the exception". Richardson explains that in other countries, and in some counties and provinces in the United States, school systems are relying on blogs and other mediums to effectively and economically share work, and that some are working quite well.
CAP is on its way to becoming an internet based program. I very much enjoy these blogs because I can write more as myself, and it's a nice way to share with my classmates what my thoughts are. However, there's Skype, facebook (I don't have one) and there are useful Google tools such as chat on Gmail. I propose we employ Richardson's principles of the world constantly moving, and we host a large Gmail group chat for the CAP students in order to discuss a project we may have. This way, we can be more inclined to listen, given that each student will resist the allure of the endless web of the internet, and chat casually with each other through the internet. We could also do this over Skype, but not all of us have web cameras.
It will be interesting to see the increasing use of internet and digital mediums in our CAP assignments.
Peace
http://diigo.com/0sywi
Hi Aidan,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to respond to something you said in your post. You wrote:
I propose we employ Richardson's principles of the world constantly moving, and we host a large Gmail group chat for the CAP students in order to discuss a project we may have. This way, we can be more inclined to listen, given that each student will resist the allure of the endless web of the internet, and chat casually with each other through the internet.
I'm willing to look into this more but I would need the help of students. Typically, the teacher first figures out how a new tool may work in the classroom. Then the teacher develops an overall purpose and sets guidelines for how the students will use this new tool.
So, if you are serious about trying to integrate a CAP Gmail chat group, maybe you could create a small team of students and lead the way. You would need to do the following:
1. Create a simple tutorial so everyone knows HOW to set up and use Gmail chat.
2. Create a list of rules and guidelines for students to follow so the chat space isn't a joke and is taken seriously by the students.
3. Come up with a way to "monitor" the chat room to make sure everyone is using the space appropriately.
I love the idea of students "proposing" new ways to use tools in our program. Would you be interested in enlisting a few of your classmates and developing this idea more. If so, let's do it!
p.s. Can you change the color scheme of your blog? The green font on purple background is pretty hard on the eyes.
mrmayo