I’ve been keeping quiet mostly lately, as has much of the edublogosphere, what with summer and breaks and vacations and other projects taking up lots of time. I thought I would be staying quiet, too, as I didn’t have too much to say. But then I caught David Warlick‘s most recent podcast, and I mostly want to say "right on!"
His podcast concludes with a cautionary word about how blogging and podcasting have become buzzworthy, perhaps the "next big thing" in terms of education and technology. That’s scary, he says, because the "next big things" often don’t change much about education as they fade into the sunset to sit alongside past edufads. Todd Oppenheimer’s book focuses on the fads — not on the good stuff of technology in the classroom.
I’m headed off for a computer-free week in the Four Corners Area. We leave tomorrow. When I return, it will be time to get serious about planning my journalism class as well as a writing course that I’ve taught before but want to modify (It seems like the more I learn, the less I feel comfortable with my teaching. Is that just me?).
I hope to use blogging quite heavily in some of my courses (and I’m even finding ways to get others in my school on board), and I’ll be encouraging many of my students to get into podcasting on their own. Might even podcast a few classroom conversations.
I’m glad to have David’s reminder to stew over for the next week. We’ve all got to be sure that the technologies that we’re bringing into our classrooms are there not because they’re cool or new or hip or whatever, but because they’re making our teaching and our students’ learning better; tech needs to be engaging students (and their teachers) in new and exciting ways.
Enough lecturing. I’m on vacation, doggonit.
