Sites

Blog Sites #1
First of all I should start by saying that I am a rookie when it comes to blogging. I used Class Chatter for a short time with my 6th grade students, but that was at the end of the year when a former Technology Integration Specialist tuned me in. Class Chatter is a free learning management system that has attributes similar to our own system at Walden. Even with this slight experience, I was totally unaware of the blogging world. It is massive! A quote that I will take away from this experience comes from Cathy Moore's blog:"To create elearning that changes real-world behavior, we have to first identify what people need to do, and only then decide if there’s anything that they need to know." This statement is applicable to the youngest of students. Why are we spending countless minutes teaching instead of having students take more action?

Lightning in a Bottle
I chose this site because of it's connection to the education world and the changes that are occuring in it. The creator, Conn McQuinn provides insight on topics such as book studies, tech standards and his personal experiences with technology and education.

Instructional Design and Development is ran by the IDD department at Depaul University. Throughout the blog, several people provide articles and insight on many topics. Primarily the goal of the site is to provide information for enhancing instruction through the use of technology. I found the articles Teaching Frustrations: Why Don’t Students Follow My (Clearly-Labeled, Logically Organized, and Bold/Highlighted/Flashing) Instructions? by Sarah Brown and Story-Telling Tools—Beyond PowerPoint by Melissa Koenig useful to me as a classroom teacher. Koenig explores the CogDogRoo, an online resource for digital storytelling. I have posted a link to this site and some others that I think will aid elementary teachers in designing lessons for their students that are empowering.


Blog Site #3
The last site I am including is an article on Internet Time titled How People Learn. I found this post to be an honest review of learner capabilities and teaching strategies of the 21st century. At times, the author provides an in your face look at education like in the "why schools suck" section."Knowledge is constructed, not transferred. It's built out of known chunks. It's always linked to the situation, thus 'situated.' Skills and knowledge do not exist outside of context. Everything is connected, in mental, physical, or social space." Peter Senge, Schools That Learn