Learning in the Digital Age

This was an article I read written by Carolyn Pool in Educational Leadership Dec. 2005/Jan. 2006. I found this article very interesting as it hit on several uses for technology in classrooms. It talked first about Wikipedia, which I had heard of, but not yet tried with my students. Check it out if you haven't yet! It is really cool! It also talked about a user-friendly search engine located at www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/blueweb. I was not familiar with this site, and was very impressed when I checked it out. I really like how they rate the websites, and found many helpful highly rated sites. I was most interested in two other topics in this article. The first was the topic of blogs. I think it is a fantastic idea, but am not yet totally sold on their usefulness. I was impressed by "Mr. Blake's Class Blog," but wonder how many blogs actually have useful information. Are they updated frequently by their creator? Is it safe for students to blog, or even read blogs that are out there? I know teachers are looking for ways to share ideas, and this is certainly a great platform!! I hope that it is used appropriately and can be helpful. I think you can see where my indecision comes form. Learning in the Digital Age also talks about podcasting. I have an ipod myself, and do listen to podcasts. However, I have struggled to find podcasts that I could use in my classroom. Hopefully through this blog, and through my graduate program, I can find answers to these questions. I found this article very interesting, and am always looking for new research and ideas about incorporating technology into my classroom.