Website Continued

My class website can found by clicking HERE. It's coming along pretty well. I think one way that way of getting kids to come back to the website would be to make a page on it that was sort of a safe place that stored educational links.

Some of the links could be drills or helpful games associted with what you're learning in the class (such as the one illustrated in the video above). Another way I thought of would be to have an extra credit question hidden on the page somewhere. This would encourage the students to come back and look for it each week, month, or grading period.

As far as teaching with technology vs. an "old-fashioned book learning" way- there's really no contest. Today's kids are growing up playing games on their manny's iphone, setting their DVRs to record "Spongebob," and uploading pictures from their digital cameras to their myspace page. To build a class around nothing but a book and a chalk board would be ludicrous.

I actually have thought this several times while in school here. I notice my education classes telling me something- "gain your student's interest" for example- and I see teachers teaching in a completely irrelevant way, almost as though the class weren't even in the room. (Mr. Paul O'Farrell's 'Intro to Geography' course for example). For myself, I have to wonder-not just technologically speaking- but when you teach a class, do you actually consider that there are real live people in the room? I think that I would- but some obviously do not.

For my classes (the one's I will teach in the hopefully not-too-distant future) I plan to integrate new ideas as well as new vessels of learning to help my students become involved and invested in the material.