English Language Arts & Reading Podcast 1 (Click Here)

Reflective Blog #4


This week I created my first Podcast. For some time I have been making movies and posting on YouTube, but had not actually created a Podcast. Not only do I now have links, but have also made this Blog into a Podcast. I hope you view my first attempt at a day one presentation for my English classroom.

My current technology use is heightened. I am more comfortable composing on-line documents than longhand, even though most of my academic life was spent writing longhand. Now, writing is not as much of a chore, no erasure, and so much better than the old typewriters and CorrectType. All of my phone numbers are now stored in my phone. If asked, I could not tell you what my wife's phone number is. It is sad but true. In many ways, I am very thankful that I do not need to remember all of that stuff. I have been to many meetings on my laptop over the years. Once I worked for a company based out of Boston and had morning meetings in my PJs over the computer and telephone. I am very connected and addicted to my Crackberry (Blackberry), but am soon changing over to the iPhone because I like the functionality and Applications (Apps) better. I run an on-line business and receive instant messages regarding orders, and have texts, e-mails and voice all running through my Blackberry all day long. I still try to focus more on one thing at a time, however, I do listen to music and watch T.V. while texting on my phone and playing solitaire on my laptop in the evenings. I do not play any video games, but play on-line scrabble, solitaire and mahjong.

I am from Generation X and identify with it greatly.

Classrooms definitely need to change in order to be relevant for the Net generation. I believe that all classrooms should be filled with technology and teachers that are literate in their use for instruction. Students today are just not interested in reading a chapter and answering the questions at the end. They need to be involved in a process that they can identify as being real world. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and new ways of interacting with whiteboards will bridge the gap between teacher and student.