Gilbertbm1's Blog

Although I have had to participate in a wiki before, this is my first blog.  I think that blogging is interesting and it is much less threatening than having to turn in a double spaced, 12 pt. font paper by Friday.  It doesn’t seem as formal and I am writing my true thoughts.  I think that I will be able to use blogging to support literacy in my first grade class next year.  One thing that I want to do is use a blog to communicate with parents.  If I link my blog to my school website, parents can visit the blog to see what we did that day or when permission forms are due.  This would be a much easier way for me to send reminders than typing up a newsletter each week with pretty font and clip art.  Twitter or Facebook could be used to do this, but I think I will just create a blog in word press or blogger so that I have the option of doing longer posts if I need to.  I also want to try letting my students blog.  First graders would be able to do an online reading journal.  After a student reads a book, they can blog a sentence or two about the book.  It would be like journaling on the computer.  I think it would also be interesting for students to comment on each other’s blogs.  I am not expecting paragraphs upon paragraphs from first graders, but if they are reflecting on what they have read and sharing their thoughts with their peers I think that it would be a worthwhile activity. This would also be helping with their writing and communication skills.  I also think that blogging could be used to have students post their reflections on different activities.  That would be useful information to me, because I could connect better with my students and use the information to plan future activities.

My definition of technology definitley has an impact on the way I use technology in my classroom.  I feel that computers, the internet, and electronics are important technologies.  I am going to use any new technology that is available to me to be more efficient in my planning and development of classroom experiences.  I am also going to use technology to enhance my student’s learning and exploration of new topics.  It would be crazy to have a computer in my classroom and never let my students research concepts that I want them to learn.  However, according to my definition, technology is anything made by humans that makes our lives easier.  So, that means that even the “non-electronic” technologies in our classroom are there to help us learn and develop.  So, for the time being I will continue to use computers and the internet, but I will also be aware that the tools we use everyday from our desks to our crayons are technologies that are helping my students to learn.

Whenever I am asked to think about technology, I am one of those people who automatically think about computers and the internet.  On the first day of class when we were asked to make a list of technology I put things like computer, internet, monitor, mouse, etc….  After I thought about it, technology is way more than just something that you can plug in.  I think that technology is anything that was created by people to make our lives easier.  I mean, wasn’t the first wheel technology? It sure made those cavemen’s lives a lot easier.  I think people now days are more likely to think of computers when we think of technology, because there are so many new internet applications and programs that make our lives easier.   Not only do they make our lives easier, but we can’t seem to imagine life without the internet.  I don’t know what I would do without my digital camera or cel phone.  Even when you go on vacation, there is WIFI in your hotel room.  When I was in school, I actually had to use a dictionary and encyclopedia.  Today, my students can find information with just a few clicks.  That sure beats spending time at the public library pouring over the pages of World Book, Brittanica, and God forbid the card catalog. So, when I think of technology, computers and electronics are definitley at the top of the list.  They were created by us to help us do things faster and more efficiently.   However, I use plenty of technology that doesn’t involve downloads and those things are  just as important or even more important than my computer or cel phone. I drive a car, have central air in my home, and cook my meals in an oven.  Try living without those things for a while.  So, my definition of technology is anything created by humans to make our lives easier, including computers and the internet as well as basic tools we use in our everyday lives.

Literacy is the ability to read and write text.  To me, this means the ability to read and write different kinds of text in different formats.  This could be a book, website, newspaper, or the back of a DVD. I do believe that in this day in age students have to be technologicially “literate”, but I find that different from the term literacy as it applies to reading and writing.  It doesn’t matter what tool you use to read and write, as long as you are reading and writing text.  As a teacher, literacy is important to me because I want my students to be successful now and in the future.  My student’s ability to read and write is more important to me than how they learn to read and write.   I am interested to see if my definition of literacy will change over the course of this class.

My name is Bethany Gilbert and I am a first grade teacher in Hickory, NC.  I am taking RE 5532 to fulfill my foundations requirement for my graduate work at ASU.  Although I have used a wiki before, this is my very first blog.  I feel comfortable using technology, and I am willing to learn about new technologies. I like learning how to do new things on the computer, but just need to be shown how.  Although I feel fairly comfortable using technology, I have a lot to learn and am looking forward to this class.