Playing with Toys

Now I’ve scowered the web completely and have seen all the blogs and I beleive I may have commented on them all.  It is definitely a learning experience to see others’ points of view and liberally steal their ideas for your own benefit.  But hey, nobody really expects teachers to respect copyright either now do they?  But seriously folks, of course that is the real point anyway.  Everyone has great ideas I’m looking forward to see more of them.  And now that I’ve got everyone’s RSS feeds I not be able to miss anything.  Some things just work so darn good.

I’ve added names to my Skype contacts and have set up a Picasa web gallery (which still needs to be tweeked).  I have set up Jing, however, I have not had quiet moment where I could narrate a demonstration.  That will be next. 

Hole in the Wall

I was quite intrigued by that piece.  It goes to show that kids are eager to learn and have a tremendous innate ability to learn what is presented to them.  It harkens the idea that “if you build it they will come.”

What will they learn when just given the tool with no guidance?  Does it matter?  As teachers we think it matters what they learn as much as what they learn from.  If presented with a hammer, does it matter if students build houses or beat each other to a bloody pulp with it.

I think the value of ICT is just as much (or more) of the point of using ICT.  The point of this course is of course to use as much technology as we can to develop a use.  But being teachers, and as I have commented on and others have commented on, we try to seek value in what we are doing.

In any case I am going to try to take off my philosophers hat for a while and concentrate only on the tools and the collaboration part as much as I can.  I think once the course is done we will have more time for reflection.  I found myself wondering why too much and not just gettin’ ‘er done.