The Launch of A New Pedagogy

Reading Chapters 1 & 10 in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms gave me a solid base and look into what the book has to offer and the basis of this class.  With these two chapters laying down the grounds of what the book contains and accomplishes, I decided to take a few lines and quotes from the author, Will Richardson, and list them.  (I hope this is not too mundane, I didn’t want to go too in depth about getting ready to go in depth.)

• "Blogs are short for Weblogs (Simple and easy, but I had no idea!) (pg.2)
•  “And the reality is that we are not going to get any less plugged in or in any less open in terms of how we live our lives.  The shifts will only become more acute.” (pg. 5)
•  “Today’s schools are faced with a difficult dilemma that pits a student body that has grown up immersed in technology against a teaching faculty that is less agile with the tools of the trade.” (pg. 7)
•  “All of this paints the picture of an educational system that is out of touch with the way its students learn.” (pg. 8)
• "But on the whole, we can be optimistic that once the potential of the Read/Write Web finds its way into schools, students and teachers will be launched on a path of discovery and learning like they have never experienced before.” (pg. 8)

In Chapter 10, four points were given that redefines what it means to teach in the New Millennium:

1. Teachers have to start to see themselves as connectors, not just of content, but of people as well.
2.  Teachers must become content creators where they practice the tools and technologies they are going to teach.
3.  Teachers need to become true collaborators, in a sense, they will be learning alongside their students.
4.  Teachers need to see themselves more as coaches who model the skills then allow students to thrive.

In the article, Secondary School Literacy: What Research Reveals in for Classroom Practice, I took away the four points that defines New Literacies:

1. New technologies for information and communication and new envisionments for their use require us to bring new potentials to literacy tasks that take place within these technologies.
2. New literacies are central to full civic, economic, and personal participation in a globalized community.
3.  New literacies are deictic; they regularly change defining technology change.
4.  New Literacies are multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted.

Attached is a URL address to a Wiki that discusses and gives links to topics that go hand-in-hand with what is discussed in this blog. Wiki: Changing Teacher Practices with Thinking & Technology

 

Also, below is a URL to an iLearn Technology Blog. This blog gives insight into how to use and utilize technology in the classroom.  There are great ideas, websites, and creative activities that broaden the use of technology in the classroom.iLearn Technology Blog