In general, I am struggling with being able to integrate so much technology into my everyday life. In the matter of a few weeks, I have more communication and networking tools at my fingers than ever before. The initial excitement over everything being so new has begun to wear off and I am realizing how little I know about most of these resources. The amount of connections that I am able to make utilizing this blog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Delicious is becoming overwhelming.
My biggest concern with all of these technologies is how I will plan on utilizing them in the classroom. On an individual basis, I can definitely see how some of these things, especially blogging and Twitter, will help me to communicate with other teachers. I plan on teaching in a big city or urban setting within the next several years so I am having trouble imagining how these will be effective teaching tools for me. In many of the classrooms that I have been in, we are lucky to have enough textbooks for the students, regardless of whether or not they are up to date. So how can I ask students to make a website or access all of this information? It doesn't seem fair to assume all students I teach will have the same access to computers, cell phones, or iPods that I currently do.
I see where you are coming from especially in regards to how can you use some of these things in that more urban setting. One idea is that most schools have some sort of computer lab, or at least one or two classroom computers. If not enough for everyone you could have a schedule of free time and dear time where individual students could work on the sites you are asking them to work on. I agree with the overwhelming thought too. I am alright with everything on its own but for me I am having a devil of a time integrating all of them like we started to last week.
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