Reflection #4

What a great week this was. Seems like this class is finally finding it's groove. Although I think that some of the folks in class can be awfully talky, I like how many of the students in the class are inquiring about the tools being offered. What I further enjoy is that the interest in Twitter is growing and growing and growing. The interesting part of that fact is that it has taken, what, six weeks to get everyone opening their eyes to the whole thing.

It makes me think back to the one-off Twitter presentations that I have given and that I've gone to that may inspired teachers to start using Twitter, only to have to have their use of the tool die off after a while. Some of our fellow students have asked me to show them my Twitter account and how I use it, so I'm glad I can be a resource for them. That's what I want to be.

As for the rest of the week, I was interested to hear and help Todd with his project about cyberbullying, which looks like it is coming along. I absolutely love Jon Orech, I enjoy talking to him- he's so down to earth. He also has this childlike curiosity about him, which, as an educator at his age, I'm delighted to see. How often do you see adults (and older adults) excited about technology and sharing websites and their favorite tools. What I also like is that he talks about storytelling, when you'd think he'd want to talk about football or sports.

I also enjoy the talk about creating a PLN. I recently wrote a post about the term PLN, which attempts to go against the grain with that term. It's a term which I feel is very "markety" and I don't think it does innovative educators justice. I don't know that the term has hit it's tipping point, and I've love it if it was changed. Even my fellow students in this class didn't like it, and thought that the term was confusing to new teachers. So, I'm not the only one who doesn't like this. 

As for Voicethread, I'm glad everyone had a chance to play with the tool. It's still not my favorite tool, mostly because I don't like the choppyness of the playback. I wonder if that's why my students lose interest on the playback. However, it's great to show parents, which I'm sure that they'd love.

Overall, a great week. Picking up a lot of steam.