Once again, I began this week's adventures by reading our required text from Will Richardson. This week's readings dealt with the online tools of Twitter, social bookmarking, podcasting, and screencasting. I have so far found this book to be very informational, detailing both what a particular program is, and how to use its capabilities. I see all of these applications as being purposeful in my classroom. As Dr. Loeffler has pointed out with Twitter, it's not just something that informs you of what your friend had for lunch, but can be quite the useful tool. By following someone who has something relevant to say in the field of Mathematics, I can get updates on methodology, or maybe hear about a beneficial resource. As far as social bookmarking is concerned, this could be a very valuable resource to share between my fellow math teacher and myself. This way we can share valuable resources without having to remember the links we tell one another in the hallway, or habitually email one another. In regards to the Podcast/Screencasts, I think this could be a great way for me to tape a lesson for absent students, or even record lessons in advance.
We also began work on creating a website in the style of a WIKI. Now, I've only created a loose shell on Google sites at the moment, but I do have some plans for it. Eventually I would like my site to be a place where students/parents alike can come to find helpful links, examples, and other resources.
The final concept that we examined this week was that of crowdsourcing. We read a very interesting article about how more and more companies are not outsourcing their work, but rather "crowdsourcing." This is the concept of posing a problem or occupation to the world at large, via the Internet. This way businesses can get a premium result at a fraction of the cost. I think that this will have a huge impact on many different fields, including education. Who knows, parents might eventually be able to hand pick their instructors from an all-star, nationwide lineup! I guess we never know what the future holds until it happens.
I love the idea of sharing your social networking sites with the other math teachers in your building. I’m sure you will have some overlap but the unique sites may be a huge help. I am always telling other teachers about my favorite sites and many get lost or forgotten about, but this may just be the way to complete that task successfully. I love finding great new sites that really inspire and give ideas – what a great way for your building to collaborate!
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of using social bookmarking to collaborate and share with my team. I haven't had the best of luck in getting people to participate so for me, it is sticking with it, referring to the resource and trying to model the usefulness of the tool. I use Diigo and I like the fact that it is so easy to highlight, add sticky notes and simply collect articles for specific groups of people. I would imagine you will have better luck working with the other math teacher; especially if you already share resources with one another. Good luck!
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