Or is it something else?

As I write this from my brother-in-laws home in Milwaukee, I'm keenly aware of the power of the Internet. I can be somewhere completely different and still have access too all of my stuff! On the seven hour drive up here from St. Louis, I finally had time to catch up on all of my podcasts. One statement in particular made by Cheryl Oakes from the Bob Sprankle, "Bit by Bit" podcast really struck me. She was talking about using read/write resources in the classroom she said something to the effect of: It's not so much about the technology, as it is about the collaboration that happens with the technology.

I couldn't have put it better myself. What makes the Internet, blogging, podcasting, wikis, and tons of the other online apps. Effective, is the way they bring students together to work with one another and share ideas. I personally as a teacher tend to have a real top-down approach to content in my classroom, but read/write resources make learning take place on a horizontal plane as opposed to the vertical, hierarchical approach. I often find myself being the "Sage on the Stage" more than the "Guide on the Side." Read/Write web resources empower students to not only learn from me, but also from others. In most cases, the learning done from others is more effective than from me!

I'll presenting at the Missouri District Educators Conference in November on Web 2.0 resources and why we should use them in the classroom. If you have any success stories, you would like me to share, please add them as comments to this blog. I know Dave Black mentioned in his Lutheran Tech blog about using Wikipedia with a class. All comments are welcome.

How have you been using blogs, podcasts, wikis, online forums, or chat in your classroom! We are listening and want to acknowledge the great work that you do!!

We might actually have another podcast coming out soon! I recorded one at my house, but can't get the template which I have on the school server to my house, or vice versa. The files are too big! I could just upload them from home, but I still have a dialup connection at home and that would take forever!! So hopefully, we'll get one recorded and up soon!

If you have something you would like to podcast about, let me know. I'm not the only one who will podcast or blog from this site. Get in contact with me, and I'd love to have you be a contributing author to TECHILC!!

Have a great 4th of July holiday!!

In His Service,

Rob

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