23 Things Blog

The first thing I said to myself when I viewed the online conference material for the first time was WOW!  There’s a lot of material here.  I decided I needed to start at the beeginning, so I listened to a “getting started” keynote entitled “How Can I  Become Part of this ReadWriteWeb Revolution?” This informal presentation was given by Cheryl Oakes, Alice Barr, and Bob Sprankle.  I have to say that I was very disappointed. I guess I expected too much; I was looking for very practical information, and maybe a keynote is intended purely to motivate.  But the only kind of technique I felt they were encouraging was putting small video cameras in the hands of students.  I’m sure there is a place for this, but I didn’t see it’s application for my teaching.  These authors frequently used the phrase “Just Do It” to encourage teachers to employ 20th century tools, but I am still looking for those tools that will really work for me and also for help in implementing them.  At this point in the course, I am almost wishing it wasn’t totally online.  I miss the face-to-face discussions of a traditional course, where I feel certain that the conversations would be inspiring.  Right now I’m not getting the same inspiration by reading blog posts.