Educational Blog Expoloration

The first blog I chose to check out was called Always Learning (from Bb) located at http://kimcofino.com/blog/ I chose to look at this blog because it is made by a teacher at an international school, which is an interest of mine. I read about professional development with a purpose. The blogger reports that the best part of teaching this is learning with the students, in the classroom, at school, with the entire department collaborating together, a topic that we have discussed several times in our own class. The teacher was able to sit down and work in small groups with the children to learn together, which she said was a blast. It surprised me that at the end of the 55-minute lesson the children were able to master the skills, in some cases much faster than the teacher. I think I can apply this to my teaching by seeing the importance of learning technology with the students and accepting that they may be better at technology than me, and that’s okay.

The next blog I chose to explore I found online. It is called The Writings of Lee Kraus. It is located at http://www.leekrausonline.com/ I watched a really great video on here about motivation. The speaker in the video reports that recent research done by economists found out that people are not motivated to do creative things in technology and innovation for money, but by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Another interesting post I read compared technology in schools to technology in the home. One of the surprising thoughts that came from that is the fact that student’s access to technology at school is overly structured, limited, scheduled, and locked. Where at home it is likely none of those things, making technology at school less innovative and open than at home. When children are given more freedom to work with technology, they are able to accelerate their autonomy and be self-directed learners.

The third blog I chose to look at is called, Moving at the Speed of Creativity. It is located at http://www.speedofcreativity.org/ On this blog I read about electronic portfolios and the importance of connecting learning between the grades. I also watched a really cute video some students made called “Gotta Keep Learning” to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling.” The video illustrates how students want to use technology to keep learning. The blog also gives tips such as how to find and read ebooks not purchased on Amazon on a Kindle. I found some pretty neat stuff.

The last blog I explored is called Open Educator located at http://gwegner.edublogs.org/ This blogger writes about how technology connects students to the outside world to experience things that they would otherwise be unable to understand. He writes that the web can fill in gaps in comprehension. He says, “The internet is the greatest repository of human knowledge ever assembled and traversing its vastness one network link at a time is all one person can do.” Its great to be able to appreciate the Internet for these opportunities to expose students to greater learning.

The blog I am choosing to follow is Moving at the Speed of Creativity listed above.