Deep Thoughts (aka 11 Tools Reflection)

I was introduced to several of these tools last summer in the 23 Things To Do project, so it was good to get in and see how some of them have changed even in just a year (for instance, the avatars now have motion and sound capabilities). With webmastery being one of the main subjects I'll teach along with Dollars and Sense, I plan to have them utilize more video type projects and hopefully have some skype presentations about careers.

I've always felt that technology has a great impact on learning, and with the way the millenium generation (i.e. our current students) are so used to technology (that is the only way they know; they don't remember when there was no internet, or when everyone didn't have cell phones) we have to be willing to change our approach to meet them at their level. There was a good presentation at a conference I went to this summer saying that even email is out-dated to current generation. They are so used to texting and IMing and facebooking (in fact, most use facebook as their "email" program to send messages) that they don't use their email accounts as much). We have to find ways to use that in positive manner.

There were no unexpected outcomes for this 11 Tools program. It was fun (albeit a little repetitive since I'd done it already via the 23 Things program). I do think that this definitely was a good thing to have teachers do; being one of the techology "wizards" on campus, I am well aware that alot of the, ahem, more experienced (i.e. older) teachers still are wary of technology. So getting them to see the many different things available hopefully opened their eyes a little. [For the record, I used wizard above in quotes because even though I'm quite comfy on computers, I still subscribe to Emerson's statement that "The more you know, the more you know the less you know". In other words, I know there is alot out there I don't know about technology that can help!].

In the words of Dennis Miller's usual closing statement from his days doing the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update, "That's the news, and I...am...Out-ta here!"