Thursday, January 22, 2009

Reflections Journal, Week 3

Information overload – Whew! I was reading a post on http://graduatingsoon-techclass.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-apprehensive-about-authoring.html, one of our fellow classmates, and I heard the same tone I sense coming from deep within me. “We’ll be publishing a Wikibook (spooky noise inserted here),” and I have to say the idea of publishing something that all the world can see, bur realistically won’t really, is a bit overwhelming! This new task, and the above mentioned post, got me to thinking – and usually that just means trouble! I started to ponder, is this assignment anxiety due to the sheer complexity of this assignment, or is it simply because I’m using a foreign technology to accomplish this task. Sometimes it’s hard (well for me it is) to learn new tricks as a seasoned (okay – old) dog! I further wondered (hold onto your seatbelts!) would students feel overwhelmed in the same way, or would their presumed ability to “learn new tricks,” negate that.

I continued with my work as usually whilst I considered the previous conundrums. Now, as I’ve continued my work, I’ve ended-up in the sandbox. I’m starting to really dig in to the whole sandbox idea. Talk about a whoosh of information! I had no idea what a sandbox was until I began this class. As I’ve been exploring this new technology, someone walked past my desk and asked me about it. I started spouting off all kind of terminology that I now understood with ease, but it was apparent buy the absent look on their face that I had lost them somewhere back at the starting gate. This interaction got me thinking, how much did attitude play a part in accepting the new technology and the assignment? I love Google; I think it’s a great tool. Even though I had never used GoogleDocs before, my attitude toward it was positive and open. On the other hand, I had never used Wiki for anything, and publishing something with a tool I was unfamiliar with wasn’t super appealing. Now that I’m becoming more familiar with this process, it’s becoming less daunting of a task. I’m even beginning to welcome it. I think that perspective with the unknown can really make the execution of the project that much more successful – I hope to remember this in my classroom. I hope that when I’m flooding my students with new information that I remember to also help their perspective stay positive.

1 comment:

  1. I can relate the change to my (first year) teaching already. All of the articles I have read so far and hearing other people's comments have been a good influence on me. I really like the research in the sandbox. Hang in there and good luck!

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