Chapter 10
What It All Means
Reflections: Random ideas the author inspired…
The Final Chapter
The author questions: “What will be the impact?” The impact will be as follows: we all will have to (band together) work cooperatively to break down barrier so; that the school districts will up- lift restrictions on some of these web-sites and programs. This course has already started a flurry of questions from administration about letters and permission slips for parents to sign. Information and education needs to be set forth to the “power of be” so that our school district is not left behind, in the “Dark Ages”, so to speak. We need to set forth on the informational highway, after all change is good isn’t it?
The author makes one stop and think of how our students’ learning objectives will change over the next decade. With this new age, Read/Write Web, there will be a new dimension on what it means to be literate in today’s world. We will now not only have to teach our children the ability to read and write but; also they will have to be critical consumers. Our students will also need to know how to work cooperatively with one another, become active members of each class, retrieve information, properly store information, and share ideas in an appropriate way with in this new medium. In addition, our students need to become active consumers as well as editor in this fast pace world of technological rage. We will teach many new skills to our students so that they can adapt to the information and have the ability to analyze, be critical readers and viewers so that they will understand what is truly or falsely produced in their reading and consumption on the World Wide Web. It seems to me that we need to teach our students to utilize these networks in a safe manner, ethical, and effective way so that our world CAN becomes a better place. Finally, no matter where you live, or where you come from, you have a voice, today, tomorrow, and in the future, after all that is what our fore father wanted for us. Isn’t it?
In signing off… Today, I realized that learning is at times a REAL challenge but worth the risk…
This is an eloquent way to sum it all up. I absolutely agree that we are now a (more) informed force of teachers and we need to get some of the walls lifted and let our kids and the parents become ACTIVE CONSUMERS--able to sort through the risk of potential access to something harmful for the sake of letting kids access so many positive things.
ReplyDeleteThe kids already find ways to access things we haven't even discovered yet, so it is double important that we do the teaching to get them to use the Internet without "going over to the dark side." As we struggle, it is really important for us to think about your final points--which underlie why so many of us became ELA teachers--we DO believe in the power of words and voices to make the world a better place. I sometimes lose sight of that buried under paper and restrictions.
Also--love the water background--very soothing.
I enjoyed your last comment-Learning is def. worth the risk and for me this class was a huge learning opportunity- I just hope that we all now have the time to use these technologhy tools in our room or in our personal lives.
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