Chapter 7 & 8

While reading Chapters 7 and 8, several themes stood out to me, including, how to effectively build higher order skills through technology, ease of access through open source websites, sharing information with families and text speak/blogs vs more formal online communication.

Chapter seven referred to two graduate students who formed a high school club in an urban setting that allowed students to play and critique video games.  I thought this was a wonderful idea because it allows students to engage in playing video games and concurrently build valuable higher order analytical, critical thinking and writing skills.  Overall, this type of activity is effective because it lets students be or become experts in fun and engaging way.  I can very well see incorporating this type of activity into a lesson plan during the school day.

I appreciated the inclusion of open source alternative websites because there is nothing more frustrating as a teacher than being incredibly excited to use web tools and resources, and then being thwarted by having to pay to download expensive programs!  The same goes for games--after reading about the River City simulation game, I went to investigate it online as a potential resource.  Unfortunately, the set up and time costs associated with the program are a little off putting.  That being said, if the game had highly proven results and good word of mouth among my colleagues, I would definitely be open to using it in my classroom!

Chapter 8 referred to sharing information with families as potentially incredibly useful in clarifying

expectations around student work.  I currently tutor a family in the Bronx and I am often annoyed when the children say they do not have homework (they say this with relative frequency!)  Often, I have no way to verify this, so I end up making up problems or assignments for them on the spot.  A homework website would be incredibly helpful in delivering reliable information about homework and class assignments.  Now that I have seen how important it is to communicate this information to parents/tutors/caretakers, I plan on using an online website when I am a teacher.

Chapter 8's focus on addressing the use of various modes of communication--e.g. texting, e-mail and blogs, was extremely interesting.  Texting and blogs allow the user to use more informal language/voice while e-mails should remain more formal.  Given how often the lines are blurred between modes of communication, I believe it is important to teach children which conventions govern each medium.  Ultimately, I want to make sure my students know that they should not be using 'lmao' or 'smh' in any type of formal communication!  Similarly, if the assignment is meant to be more informal, such as creating a web blog, I want students to feel comfortable developing and using their own voice.

Questions for further thought

1)  Do you have concerns about introducing games because students may become too engaged at the detriment of completing work/activities that is not game based?  Why or why not?

2) Would you post homework assignments on an online website or do you prefer to let students copy down assignment/give students a print out of homework assignments?

3)  How will you teach students to differentiate between using formal and informal voice in the class/assignments?