First Post

I am going to start by telling you that this is my very first blog post of any kind.  For that reason, I have a few reservations about blogging, mainly because I am always concerned about how much information about myself is accessible online.  It is not that I don't think I would enjoy sharing information about myself with others, but just that I want to protect myself from any recourse should something I say be misconstrued in the future.  With that in mind, I sure all blogposts will go through at least on draft phase and some editing.  

My reasons for taking this class are to learn about other methods for using technology in the classroom than I have been previously.  Primarily, I use PowerPoints, online videos and ELC when teaching, partly because I don't know what else is available or that could easily be incorporated to my classroom.  When thinking about my own experiences with technology in the classroom, my hesitation probably comes in part from not having seen much of it in action.  I always feel better using something once I can see what can be done with it and how.  However, I realize that as I am teaching future teachers, I should be showing them this technology since I don't want them to have the same reservations using it as I do.  One way that I have seen technology used for classes is through discussion boards.  Generally, I tend to find these, at least how my teacher have done them to be less useful than one-on-one conversations.  Yes, discussion boards could allow conversations to continue beyond the classroom, but they also may and often have just become and a way to spew a bunch of information at once rather than a back and forth conversation.  Often I have had teachers who ask us to post quotes we like, explain them and ask questions, all in one post.  While this does help you think deeply about the reading it also means the students who have to make a significant response to those comments may have to read through a somewhat lengthy comment before they can write a few sentences in response.   Yes, I have had good ideas come through these discussion boards, but it always feels more time consuming than a class discussion.  It also feels less personal to me since you are not interacting with them at the same time and cannot really have the same sort of exchanges as you would in person.  Sometimes you can ask a question and never get a response or not get a response for days, by which time the question may not seem as important to you.  I wish there was a discussion board that was more like a chatroom that could take place at one time and everyone would be there, and you really could get that interaction with peers right then and there.  Some of the best insights I have gotten from a class have come through class discussions and I'd hate to lose those in an online classroom setting!