Week 4 Reflection

To date, our work in class has involved becoming familiar with the plethora of software available on the web that has been designed to promote collaborative problem solving.  Reading about the various "mindtools" and community building technologies at my disposal as well as their potential to make learning meaningful (active, intentional, constructive, authentic, and cooperative) has made we want to incorporate more of them into my classroom teaching.  

As mentioned by Jonassen, today's students are growing up in a society where they are constantly bombarded by information, data, and statistics.  Empowering our students to process, utilize, evaluate, and synthesize this information should be at the forefront of our teaching practice.  Too often though, I find myself reverting to a more traditional, or at least a less technology-centric approach to teaching.  This occurs in part due to a lack of access to to computers at my school and the complications (computers not working, computer cart signed out, internet down) that can arise when trying to access software on the web.  

Although, starting last year, I created a class blog where, much like we are doing in this course, my students are required to reflect weekly on their learnings in the classroom.  I too want my students to, "think more deeply about how the questions, topics, technologies?, and activities in (class) relate to (their) educational / professional interests" (from course syllabus).  My class blog (adress available in our course wiki or here) also serves as place for students to connect what they have learned to their community, family, and the larger world.  

In some ways I have found my class blog to be useful.  For example, the public nature of the blog allows all students to read each others posts.  This can be particularly helpful for students who struggle writing and are provided with the opportunity to learn from the more advanced writing samples of their classmates. Although, in my opinion, the blog falls short when it comes to fulfilling most of Jonassen's five characteristics of meaningful learning.  Currently, I do not require students to comment on one another's posts.  Perhaps this could help to make the blog more authentic, active, intentional, and cooperative.