Week+1

PED3119b

And so it begins...

Today we began the process of educating the educators. Having taken the ICT test to discover my range of technological prowess, I have discovered that there are many technologies out there that are applicable for the classroom of which I am mostly illiterate in. Twitter, MovieMaker, the wide world of Google, Photostory and an entire range of useful applications are available that, for my part, I have been totally conscious in my choice not to use in my personal life. A range of philosophical and ontological reasons exist for my suspicious nature. However, the introduction of these technologies into the classroom has opened a new door to myself and my ability to educate effectively. Although I remain weary of the technology, I believe maintaining this standpoint will offer my students a critical perspective on the manner which should help to broaden their own perspectives.

Apart from taking stock of our own technological inventories, we were also required to begin the process of recording our journey through this course. The medium which I am using (right now) to record this technological evolution of mine, a wikispace, I have discovered is not only useful for my current objectives, but could prove to be a very useful tool for the classroom as well. Having a space where students can find updates, notes, assignments, course-related literature and other helpful content is an applicable tool in any classroom. The idea of students and teachers getting together in a collaborative environment in order to create, edit, and evaluate is also extremely attractive in an age where many students are increasingly (and unfortunately) more comfortable participating and communicating online.

To create these wikis we learned the nuts and bolts of wiki-ing, i.e. inserting and editing text, using pictures, formatting links and other basics.

My technological evolution is now underway... 

There is integration of technology in courses across the curriculum - for links to curriculum documents under my areas of specialty (history and religion) please visit these websites: History - http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/canworld910curr.pdf http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/canworld1112curr.pdf Religion - http://www.occb.on.ca/ice/default.cfm?category=53  For more info on using wikis or if you want to create your own, please visit these websites: http://sites.google.com/ http://www.wikidot.com/ http://www.wiki-site.com/ http://www.openwiki.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

