Reflections

Three short months ago, I had no idea that there was a new "generation" of web applications that facilitated collaboration. Though I intellectually see the phenomenal creative potential of technology, I continue to be amazed at what it is making possible and I admire the imaginations of the people that are coming up with these ideas. Even more exciting is that with these tools, groups of individuals are bringing their energies and focus together - synergy.

I live in the transition between two generations. The elder is family, friends, and colleagues that take limited advantage of the internet; the younger is our children who spend more time viewing electronic messages than possibly anything else they do in the course of a day. Furthermore, they have all the facts and formulas at their fingertips. And I, of the elder, will be trying to teach students, of the younger, something that it seems they are more familiar with.

Wait, I do have experience to share. Collaboration, not always simple, improves with practice. I can provide students practice in doing nothing less with the ideas of others than they would do with their own. I can help them identify friendly environments. I can facilitate discrimination of helpful actions vs. actions that "pollute." I can provide practice with organization, following directions, reading.....and.....I can introduce new web applications. Although they may take those applications and run (farther than me), I can provide practice in making introductions and connections.

Having worked with different developmental stages and needs, whenever I think about computers in the classroom, I carry the concern that we are offering electronic tools to children at too young an age. I believe this is a appropriate question that must be sincerely entertained by innovators in the field. That having been said...

Experiencing Classroom 2.0 has given me a new set of powerful teaching tools that are already engaging my students and I in a broader level of awareness. Teaching and learning in a networked classroom opens the doors to the world. How exciting is that?!