Chapter 10: What It All Means

  Thank goodness for Chapter 10 which summarizes the tools that I have been learning about in class.  There are a lot!  So this was helpful to wrap it up with explanations.  Technologies will always be evolving and educators need to be trained in these technologies.  Our students are exposed to so many things and are more aware of more things daily.  There are so many ways to acquire knowledge and we need to use it effectively as students and teachers.    The Read/Write Web is a great way to collaborate with others, a great way to get feedback, and to bounce ideas off of similar people.  As I have been stating, the possibiltiies are endless.  For me it is my comfort level.  Just as some of my sixth graders are afraid of fractions, I am afraid of technology.
 The Big Shifts are very important and I think good news for students and teachers!  I can use these to guide the best way to teach today's students. Big Shift 1 is open content, no longer is the textbook the number 1 source!  Shift 2 is there is readily available access to other teachers and 24/7 learning!  3 is being social and collaborative to make knowledge meaningful. 4 is teaching is conversation not lecture.  That is a relief, how boring to be lectured at all the time!  5 is to know "where" learning is: to be able to locate information. 6 is readers are no longer readers.  No more being a passive reader, it is now more of an active undertaking!  7 is to use the Web as a notebook/portfolio.  We can collect links, text, audio, video, photos, etc. 8 is writing is no longer limited to text.  Thanks to the Web we can write in different genres such as audio, video, music, photos, and code and then publish it easily for many audiences.  9 is mastery is the product not the test.  Students can show their mastery in many ways!  10 is contribution not completion is the final goal. Students and teachers contribute their own ideas and work on the Web. You can get instant feedback and the world can check it out! 
 I am excited to start implementing these tools into my classroom.  This week I had a glitch with my Eno Board and I was able to figure out what was wrong and to fix it!  An aha moment for me, so slowly I am hoping to be doing more and more with the Web and technologies with my teaching and for my students.  This book will be a great resource for that!