Week 6 Topic 3

What are your thoughts on the use of Google Hangout for tonight's class?  If you were to use this, or a similar platform, in your own class, what "lessons learned" would you apply?

Week 6 Topic 2

In an ideal world, we would have access to technologies and learners who are capable of using them to their maximum extent when designing technology-enhanced lesson plans.  As we all know, this often is not the case.

What are some examples of tech-failures from your own teaching or the teaching of your peers? Examples might included hardware that did not work as intended after major investment, lack of access to critical software as required by a lesson, or the denial of the use of hardware or software by your administration.  How was this problem addressed at the time?  What might you do differently (or suggest be done differently) now?

Week 6 Topic 1

In your school, are there any aspects of digital citizenship that are not being addressed, but should?  How might you address this need, given some of the tools you now have at your disposal? 

Week 4 topic

In class, we had quite a lively debate about the tension between expecting students to conform to our current standards of face-to-face communication, or being flexible enough ourselves to accept new communications paradigms.  This week, I would like for you to choose one side and defend it.  Should we:

1) expect digital natives to learn "proper communication skills" (e.g., not checking phone during meetings), or...

2) be more flexible with our own expectations?

Class 2

Near the end of our second class, we touched a bit on the "tech lead" model, in which one person is often tasked as being a technology subject matter expert, and told to lead efforts to integrate new hardware (iPads, laptops, etc.) and software (apps, games, etc.) into the school's curriculum.

1) What experiences have you had with this model? 

2) Do you think it is an effective way to promote technology use in your school, and why?

In our first class meeting, we ended the night with a question, which we began to answer:

Should we continue to treat traditional methods of student interaction with information (such as learning to read the index section of books) as having equal value as being able to properly search and vet information in hyper-linked format (such as in learning apps or on Wikipedia)? Why or why not?

Please continue that discussion here, specifically reflecting on the needs of your own students.  Remember to reply to this main question, as well as to the response of at least one other person!