Class is officially over, but....

A most interesting thing happened today. Propelling Lukas along thru packing for college, we had to explore the RIT site for housing info - room assignments, basic room floor plan, types of dorm room accommodations ( bed - of course; desk? dresser? closet? etc.) My daughter, Liv, was sitting nearby, doing research online for her translating job. ( Translating Latin for a professor who's writing a book.) We found his room assignment (a quad room with 3 other guys- all from NY) but still did not know what the basic room setup was for packing. Lukas said, after looking for about 5 min. that there was no more info on dorm rooms, and started looking at his favorite online comics.


Liv looked at me and began talking about something that really surprised me - coming from her( age.) She said that kids her generation and younger expected to find exactly the info they were searching for online immediately - that is within the first search. Generally speaking, they didn't know how to find the info if they couldn't find their answer right away - but quit/shut down or say that info wasn't on the web. Apparently, one of her roommates last semester was student teaching and created some Web quests. The answer was included in the given link, but not necessarily obvious, therefore requiring a bit of exploration at each link. My guess is that most most web quests are that way since you want the students to sort thru info, find the pertinent stuff, report back or build on it, etc. Liv and Bri spent many a night discussing this learning issue that Bri had stumbled upon and wrestled with as a young teacher in training. Lukas, my own kid, was exhibiting the same problems, with a basic search for info. (Yikes - my own kid should know how to keep digging for an answer!!!!) The best part was that Liv pointed it out to me - not the reverse. I'd seen this before with my kids and wondered about it. Now one of these same kids was aware of and talking about it, to me!

So, what to be learned? We still have to teach kids that the laptop is not just an answer box, and that the knowledge we seek is not always a simple-one-click away. Research and discovery is, to some degree, trial and error, seeking out in the main ways and the by ways - boulevards large and alleys small to find the best answer/ the right answer.

I want to help/teach my students to be willing to spend the time to explore in order to discover the best information available.

Kudos to Sandy

Many thanks to Sandy for creating this fun course. It's been helpful to explore teaching tools offered online. This has been a good class for helping me to focus on exploring various types of tools!! Many thanks!!!

PLN

Personal Learning Network... mine's huge. So huge that there are areas that are left unvisited for days, months. However, I love having all those resources at my fingertips. We did not explore listservs, but my guess is that's really old school, these days. Comfortable for me, tho. Similar but more current would probably be Ning or even Facebook. Hmmm wonder what's on Facebook for art teachers? Ultimately, lots has to do with my time, my needs, and my abilities to navigate the site. Likewise for all these types of tools we've explored on the web with the last 9 lessons. When it all boils down to it, I am still teaching art - visual art, and I need to weigh the opportunities online with the hands-on opportunities in my classroom.

If only I had each child in LD for an hour every day......

Task 10

Finally, the end, and to some degree, some of the best info yet. Itunes U looks fun - just checked and discovered some info my daughter ( studying for masters in Theology and Art) will love - Intro to Biblical Hebrew! Who'da thought?

I'm guessing these classes could be downloaded to Ipod or laptop and further my own education. Coolness. Not sure how much there is for us down in Lower Division, however. Some exploration just showed a few things for Elementary classes in general.

Man, I am struggling to get back to Itunes U - they dont make it easy!!! agggggggggggggghhhhh.