Thinking About IT

Bill Ferriter’s (2009) article focuses on the advantages reading/writing blogs and wikis offer. As a teacher I find it inspiring and it also makes me feel optimistic about teaching my students. The suggestions that Ferriter offers about writing blogs and wikis sound great for older students, but I feel that the challenge for me is to think of how to adapt the use of technology for younger students (third grade and younger). How can I support students who are still developing their reading and writing skills to also develop their digital literacy skills? Which also raises the question: should web and digital skills be introduced at a certain age in school? As teachers, do we focus on skill learning in the early grades, and get more advanced as the students’ skills develop? Or can we start blogging with Kindergarten students? It is interesting to have the opportunity to think about how to use technology in the classroom, and it is also exciting to think about how this might look with students in the younger grades.

As a teacher who will be looking for my own classroom for next year, I believe I have to in general learn how to actually incorporate technology in the classroom in a productive and comprehensive way for all students. I would like to understand how to incorporate the different digital mediums so that they may be used in purposeful ways. This means that if as a class we decide to make a movie for a project, there is a purpose to the learning process of making a movie that connects with the learning goals for the unit of study.

As a student I feel as though I am proficient with my own web 2.0 skills, however, I need to develop a better sense of how to incorporate technology into my teaching so it too can become a dynamic experience for my students.