Foot: The Socially Networked Classroom

Chapter 4

New and Old

This chapter offered more in-depth technological projects, but I liked how a lot of the assignments could still be conducted in an old fashion way, if need be. Zac Chase's social action project incorporated using Drupal and RSS feeds but also said that the same project could be accomplished in a paper. Using technology, you have to leave room for error and set backs that might not allow you to use the internet during a certain class period. If a project is able to be completed both online and on paper then it will probably be more useful to have. 

Assessment

Half way through the chapter, one of the questions to consider was about students taking part in activities that don't have clear cut answers at the end. Based on what students are use to, I can see this to be a big barrier. So often teachers give lessons where at the end an assessment is a test. If there is not a test, students don't know what to do or how they will be able to show what they know. Using Web 2.0 seems to me a better way of showing students that you don't have to have a test after every lesson. You aren't always going to get a perfect answer overarching every question. Inquiry lessons might show students that it's not all about memorization and resuscitation. Paul, an English teacher in New York did a good job of summing this up. He said, "assessment is about self-assessment in the end" (Kist 91). Students should be able to assess themselves and see how much they have grown throughout the lesson

Our Classroom

After reading this chapter I had a number of questions about our own blogs and if we could participate in some other projects. The first question was should we be tagging our entries on here? I'm not sure how to do it or if we even can, but maybe it would speed up finding a blog entry to reply to and catch people's personal interests more, rather than just commenting on any old post. Another project I liked was Mike Slowinski's use of Google Groups to connect preservice teachers to students. I think it would be so neat to be able to connect with students about books and their English classes on a blog or wiki. This is an idea for a future class that maybe we could set up connection with Firestone High School, if not them then maybe another classroom that Dr. Kist has connections with. I think this would really help us, preservice teachers, by allowing us to get an idea of what interest and bores students and what kind of books they are popular in their classrooms.