Blog Reflection

As I look back over my posts, I realize that my attitude towards using technology has evolved a bit. First, when I began this class I was fresh from teaching in St. Paul (both student teaching and summer school), where access to computers both in and out of school is limited for the student population. This, understandably, gave me an attitude of weary optimism when it came to techology. I wanted to reach my students where they were, but I kept finding that my students were not where all the research said they were. It frustrated me deeply to hear scholars and academics or people from affluent schools talk about how the digital divide is a myth, that it is really just a broadband divide. I still invite these people to spend time in poorer schools and then revisit this notion.

Now, after spending the last four months in a more affluent district (albeit one that is certainly not "rich"), I understand how people can have this misconception. I now understand what it is like to teach in a school where the majority of the kids have computers at home, even if they don't have much else. Also, if the kids don't have a computer at home, there are hundreds of computers for them to use at school. We have things like podcasting microphones and a tech department that can fix problems. We have teaching tools like Vision and other capabilities that allow us to really incorporate technology into our lessons without it being a major production that ends up detracting from learning instead of enhancing it.

Further, as I look back over my writing, I can tell that my attitude has changed regarding the possibility of using technology in the classroom as well. In my later posts, I examine the viability of the technology in classroom assuming that the basic technological capabilities are there to begin with. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing; I want to be a voice for those who go unheard in academic circles, but I also want to be a good teacher to the students I have before me. These students still have hurdles to overcome. For instance, they are not allowed to have web-based email addresses or access youtube or flickr or picasa, ,etc, because of the security filters. Still, when we want to access the computers, with a little planning, we can do that at South St. Paul, whereas I was unable to at Como Park H.S. in St. Paul.

In all, I am happy that I have deepened my knowledge of using web 2.0 in the classroom, and I intend to continue to find ways of incorporating it. I do notice that it seems to reach kids on a level that I (being relatively young) can somewhat understand, but not fathom completely. I do proceed with caveats, however; web 2.0 does not solve all problems of engagement and motivation. For further evidence of this, I recommend checking out my class's latest wiki efforts. Their pages are full of spelling and grammar mistakes, lazy formatting, and missing requirements. Overall, though, the benefits outweigh the detractions.