Apparently some people are not enjoying the ITForum. I received numerous messages with the word “Unsubscribe”. Fortunately, someone sent a reminder about how to correctly unsubscribe before things got too out of hand! However, some subscribers must not read thoroughly because there continued to be multiple requests for unsubscription after the directions were sent out to everyone!
There was an interesting thread on the ITForum regarding Mobile Learning in response to a paper that was posted for the forum. This terminology was new for me, although some of the concepts were not. The discussion included the topic of chat rooms that are available for cell phones. This is an interesting concept, although it is not something particularly useful for my 2nd grade classroom. Although, perhaps it would be handy for higher education! Interactive software programs, online videos, and MP3s are also considered forms of mobile learning. One thing that was a bit disturbing to me was the concept of text messaging as a form of mobile learning. While I find text messaging to be a welcome convenience in my personal and social life, I am not sure that it has a legitimate place in the world of academia! Many students already struggle with deciphering between “text speak” and the more appropriate, formal language in the academic world. To include text messaging as part of the learning process might only continue to feed this growing problem! I found it very interesting that one participant shared of a graduate course at her university that offered a course on mobile learning, and the course was facilitated entirely through the use of smart phones. Wow, this really is the “way of the future” (or should that be present?)!
The iLearn Technology blog continues to contain information and resources most relevant to my current practice as a 2nd grade teacher. This blog contains not only curricular resources in such areas as Reading, Math, Science, etc., but it also frequently offers resources to help nurture technologically literate and technologically aware students. Recently there was a post on the blog about a website called Progressive Phonics. I believe this website will be a fantastic resource through which I will be able to pull additional texts for students who are struggling with phonics (and this year I have several!). Through the blog, I also discovered a Math website called Sum Dog (http://www.sumdog.com/). I am quite sure this website will be a very engaging and fun way for students to practice basic computation skills! The author of the blog also shared a link to an article entitled Ten Steps to Better Lesson Plans. While I was already familiar with the concepts contained within the article, it was certainly a great refresher on what a “good” lesson plan contains!
The other blog I joined, Kim’s Ventures in Technology, has very infrequent postings. There was a post for members to share their best blogging tips. I thought this post might hold some interesting and relevant information that I could use. Alas, there was only one response!
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