Saturday, January 30, 2010

Week 3

With all the fanfare regarding Apple's iPad, I've been wondering about its application in a library media center. If we overlook the price, could this be a valuable tool?
It seems to me although it is unlikely the iPad as we know it will find a home in classrooms and libraries, tablet devices should be the future flagship of academic tools. Much like laptops are ubiquitous on college campuses for their versatile academic and entertainment functions, I envision middle and high school students using school issued tablet devices in lieu of pens, notebooks, and textbooks.
In the coming years, as prices go down, I can not think of any realistic reason not to see tablet devices moving to the forefront of educational tools.
I imagine students downloading "textbooks," uploading homework, and real-time interaction between teachers and students in and out of school. Multimodal learning materials will literally be at students' and teachers' finger tips.
I hope this does not seem like a far-fetched idea. I expect this type of technology to be universal during my career as a slms. It was only 20 years ago that computers became prevalent in schools. I am excited to see what the technology of the next 20 years has in store for students and educators alike.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Week 2

In many of my colleague's blogs and wiki discussion posts, one can see that there is some concern about students' use of technology and the various roles a slms can or should play in that regard.
I feel in most cases teaching information literacy and responsible, ethical and most importantly SAFE use of these technologies will consume our efforts.
With the exception of very low SES students, most students will be as technologically adept as we are, if not more so, due to the incorporation of these technologies in their everyday lives. What students are lacking however, is the ability to take seriously the risks they are apt to take or be tempted by. There are, of course, numerous opportunities and vehicles for what most educators would consider cheating. There are also opportunities for various types of copyright infringement, which as we all learned, could potentially land a slms in a precarious position if he or she is ultimately found to be proliferating such material inadvertently.
Lastly, we must focus an effort to encourage online safety. Even a student who is aware of the risks of publishing "private" information online will likely succumb to the invincibility fallacy, believing that none of the "horror stories" could happen to him or her. And though they likely will not be targeted by a sexual predator or someone of that ilk, what students do not realize is that some of these youthful indiscretions may be available to other unintended targets; parents, potential colleges, and/or potential employers.
Although I do not have the answers as how to best achieve these goals, I am interested in learning through this course especially how leaders in the field suggest we do so, as well as my classmates' views as well.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Week 1

While I am no stranger to blogging, or sharing information and opinions via the web, this class marks my first foray into the world of wikis. By that I mean that I have not contributed significantly to a wiki in the past, although I use many Web 2.0 tools to perform many of the same functions.
I am interested in seeing how the interaction between the class members evolves throughout the semester, especially since I assume we all have varying levels of experience publishing and collaborating using Web 2.0 tools.
Although I have plenty of experience using Web 2.0 tools, I would also be the first to say there is always something new to learn, and I am excited to see how these tools can help me in a professionally, in ways I may not have envisioned.
On a somewhat related note, the timing of this class coincides with me exploring Google Wave. I will be using it for non-academic reasons, but from what I understand, it could likely be a valuable tool for collaborating in an academic sense. I will be sure to keep you all posted about my progress as the semester unfolds, should it be pertinent to our class.

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