Blog Blog Blog: My feelings on blogging

Well, what can I say????? Wow.....I have my very own blog!!!! Who would've known! Anyhow, setting up the blog was surprisingly relatively simple!!! It was much easier than I originally would have thought. This is likely because I am intimidated by a lot of technological "stuff", only because I am unsure of it. Activities, such as setting up a blog, show me that once I do something once, and it's relatively successful, I feel much more confident about it! Keeping this blog is a neat way to stay connected to the course, and my classmates, and will help me to stay in-tune with blogging.....should I ever need to blog again! Who knows???

The current class that I am in is actually a Learning Disability class of grade seven and eight's, with only 11 students. It's actually pretty amazing! These kids are unique and incredible to me! I enjoy these kinds of challenges - I suppose that's also why I chose to take this course. There is actually a significant amount of technology within this particular classroom, versus other classrooms within the school. There is a computer for every student which has some sort of assistive technology associated with its use, for example writing programs such as Kurzwell, and Dragon, a voice recognition system. It is so amazing to watch the students use these tools to show what they really know, and to be given the opportunity to express themselves in a way that they would otherwise not be able to do.

I found Stephen Downes' blog article, "Things You Really Need to Learn" somewhat enlightening, but I think many of his ideas were obvious. When he talks about the things we really need to learn, there was not one that I already hadn't thought of myself. I too place great importance on all of these ideas as they relate to learning, or what is important to learn in life. I especially agree with the comment that we must not only learn, but learn how to learn. This is where I think the role of the teacher or educator is absolutely crucial. We as educators have the more demanding task of taking children under our wings, and teaching them how to learn as best they can, and at the same time always thinking in a critical manner, constantly questioning and when need be, challenging an idea or information.

Here is the link:
http://www.downes.ca/post/38502