Reflection #5

Well, I wish I was here on the final day of class, because this was definitely one of my favorite classes in this program. I'm a Web 2.0 fanatic, and I often was depressed at the lack of innovative tools used in this program. Or, if they were used, they were used as novelty, as if the instructor had just discovered it, and the class never fully got to dive very deep into the tool. Excel was always favored over Google Spreadsheets, if you get my drift.

The last year was much improved as the program started to finally catch up. I hope that the hiring of some new, innovative adjunct staff is a beacon for more innovative instruction.

As for the class,  well Tuesday, it was really nice to hear from Meg Ormiston and Charlene Entman. They both had a handful of links and tools. I thought it was Meg who wrote a book I read a couple years ago, but alas, it was someone else. Lately, everyone is saying they are writing a book, and I looked up Meg's books, and they look helpful for young educators.

About CIPA/COPPA - it was nice to see the lightbulb go off in some of our classmate's eyes, as they learned about some myths surrounding those Acts. I didn't realize that schools that didn't receive funds didn't actually have to adhere to them, and furthermore, it's to be noted how loose the interpretation can be on those laws. I have seen some schools create their own curriculum for adhering to them (which I admire very much, as the cracker-jack curricula are terrible).

We shared many tools and videos regarding the law tonight, and I bookmarked all of them. In my absence on Thursday, I spent some time over the past few days collecting some more tools and sharing them to the group.

http://groups.diigo.com/group/tie-542-summer-2010

Overall, I was really hoping some more folks would get into Diigo, but it only seemed to be a few of us adding to the group. Maybe others were just "observing," as that is something I see a lot of newbies do. Which is fine. I hope that after six weeks, that enough time as passed for some of the students in this class to actually buy-in to some of these tools, like Twitter or the PLN so that we can continue to connect or share. I hope they keep trying to reach out in this way.