Musings from the first day of class

This is actually very exciting. I like the idea of using blogs to discuss stuff in class, but I must admit, I find the idea of blogging about daily life a little self-involved. My thinking on that might and probably will change though as I work through this. :)

I'm excited about what we're going to learn because it's going to have a huge effect on how my students are learning and achieving success in my classroom. I think my students learn very differently than I did because they have grown up using these technologies, and that has shaped their learning styles. I think that using modes of communication that they are already somewhat literate in will allow them to engage more in the learning process.

That all being said, while my students are a little more technologically literate than I am, I can't call them completely literate because I think that part of literacy involves analyzing and evaluating. From my experience, students have great difficulty analyzing the text and sounds and images that fly at them on a daily basis for meaning, purpose, and intent, and they struggle to evaluate the validity and credibility of information they find on sites. The recent focus on Wikipedia as a credible source demonstrates this nicely enough. I'm eager to find ways to help my students learn how to effectively analyze and evaluate content they find on the Web.

I guess maybe that's it today. :)