Emerging Technology that Supports Communication and Collaboration

Chapter Three: Supporting Student Technology

This chapter explained communication perfectly. The definition of communication is a very broad term. The chapter broke it down even further into terms of:
- Point-to-Point (phone, internet): this is a two way conversation or communication
- One-to-Many Outbound (TV show, lecture, websites)
- Many-to-Many (group discussion)
(Egbert, 2009)

This is what stood out most to me in this chapter, because as educators I think we fail to attend to important factor in our profession. I believe we realize we do this, but do we really take it into full consideration when planning our lessons?
Something to ponder.:)


Chapter Four: Supporting Student Critical Thinking

“Critical thinking skills refer to abilities to analyze, evaluate, infer, interpret, explain, and self regulate. A simple way to define critical thinking is the ability to make good decisions and clearly explain the foundation for those decisions” (p. 101)
This is exactly what we want students to be able to do when they leave school, and especially when they are using technology. We want them to think: “Is this a creditable site?”, “Is this a fact or an assumption?”, “Am I being open minded about this issue?”, “Do I have all the facts?”, and so on. I believe this is the ultimate goal of education (besides the basic foundation), and we even have to consider this aspect in regards to technology.


Chapter Six: Supporting Student Problem Solving

From this chapter, I found the guidelines for technology-supported problem solving to be a very important aspect in the education arena. The guidelines were:
- Integrate reading and writing
- Avoid plagiarism
- Do not do what students can do
- Make mistakes okay
(Egbert, 2009)

We need students to be thinking and integrating reading and writing in all they. This will only to better prepare them for the working world. We want student to be able to find information, gather it, and then to put it into their own words and ideas. This leads to better problem solving. Do not do what students can do- let students develop the problem, search for resources, and design the assessments. This too will lead to better problem solving. Lastly, mistakes are okay. We need students to understand that mistakes are part of learning; it is a strong teaching tool. We all learn from our mistakes, and it is through these mistakes that we learn how to do something and do it right.

Bibliography:
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: essentials of classroom practice. New
Jersey: Pearson.


Chapter 5: Project Management Strategies for Teachers and Learners

In this chapter the personalized web pages stood out to me the most. This is something that I could see being really beneficial in a classroom setting, especially with older students. It would also help with the motivation factor with most students. This also gives students the opportunity for individuality which they are usually crying out for in middle and high school. Like Egbert said, let the student create the problem, search for the resources to solve the problem, and design the assessments. This will help them with problem solving. Through this project students reading and writing has no choice but to get better, and if math is included it too then it will have to get better as well.

Bibliography:
Boss, S. & Krauss, J. (2007). Reinventing project-based learning: Your field guide to real-world
projects in the digital age. Washington, D.C.: ISTE.