skiing

I went skiing yesterday for the first time. Well, actually I went once when I was 12. But that was back in Ohio and I wiped out on the bunny hill, twisting my ankle. I had decided then that skiing was not for me. But since I had moved to a state where there are real mountains, I thought I would give it a try. So what does this have to do with instructional technology you may ask. Well, obviously if you don't know how to do something, you have to learn. So how did I learn? Well, they do offer group classes at Beaver Mountain on how to stop, how to turn, and so forth. But the time they offered lessons wasn't right for me. So my friend Doug, who is relatively new to skiing, said he would help me learn the basic skills. He demonstrated how to stop, and I practiced. He did a pretty good job, and after a few runs on the little dogie, the least challenging of the runs at Beaver Mountain, I tried my hand at the Little Beaver. Little Beaver was very challenging...I wiped out a few times. But I was able to get myself back up.

I guess you could say that Doug helping me learn how to ski was a case of peer tutoring. Doug was not an expert skier, but he was able to demonstrate what he had learned and talk about some of the things he experienced and learned as he was practicing. So that was very helpful. Peer tutoring has been shown to be effective in helping students learn many different subjects at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. While I am still far from perfect skiing, I got a good start. Now as soon as the soreness wears off, I will give it another try.

UEN

UEN is a pretty neat tool for Utah educators. I have used wimba in the past to bring guest speakers into the classroom. Students love to be able to have experts in various areas speak to them, and I don't have the budget to pay for travel expenses. But with wimba all a speaker needs is a web cam and a computer with an internet connection. This would be great for elementary teachers, who could have people from different cultures speak to their students.

online education

In an interesting twist of fate, ever since I graduated with my Ph. D. in educational technology I have gotten a large number of snail mail letters imploring me to "finally complete my education so I can get ahead"  from institutions such as University of Phoenix and Argosy University. There's not too much farther one can go after a Ph. D. Even if one could, I am not so sure I would want to. I am wondering where this surge in such letters has come from. Did Purdue sell my address?

Blogging about my students blogging

Since I am having my students blog about blogging in their future classrooms, I thought it only fair for me to blog about them blogging about blogging in their future classroom. Whew, that was a mouthful... Reflection is an integral part of teacher education. As such, teacher educators should be mindful to encourage reflection among preservice teachers. It is one of the best ways to get students to translate theory into practice. One of the ways it can help is the use of blogging in conjunction with field experience or student teaching. When preservice teachers try a technique they were taught in methods classes the first time, it is likely that it will not work as planned, or at least not for all students. If preservice teachers reflect on what went well and what went not so well, they can think about why. Such reflection works better when the reflector can do so as soon as possible. With a blog, preservice teachers can reflect on a day's experience in a school that evening. And their comments can shortly be read by other preservice teachers as well as experienced teachers, who can provide insight as to what can be done better.

Back to this week's assignment, I will find it interesting to see what all ideas my students have for the use of blogs in the classroom. Obviously they all want to teach different levels, and even two students who want to teach third grade will likely have different takes on how blogs can be used in the classroom. Collective intelligence can be a powerful thing, and hopefully students will gain new ideas from reading each other's posts.