Here, I will do my best to pull all of the information, theory and technology together so that I can make sense of it all, as well as make sense of my thinking for you. First, I would like to discuss the fact that I was able to master the technologies that were set out at the beginning of this class. I am able to effectively utilize the following digital literacies: Twitter, tumblr, seesmic, disqus, flickr, facebook groups, and Wikis. My mastery of these technologies helps me to be able to participate meaningfully in discussions on a wide range of topics with my classmates, and with people beyond our class. I am able to design lessons which utilize these technologies, and through explaining portions of these genres to classmates, I know that I would be able to demonstrate the use of them to my students.
In addition to being able to use these genres in effective ways with my students, I am able to contribute to meaningful conversations on topics related to foreign languages. For instance, I can search Twitter for hashtags which show people who are tweeting about issues related to FL teaching. Another use of these technologies is that I could go on flickr and search the galleries for photographs to utilize in my classroom as warm-up activities, or in addition with other texts to teach culturally based lessons. The webquest activity helped me to find a very useful free journal that I plan on following. It shows different ways that technologies are being utilized in FL classrooms.
I have arrived at my True North, or Norte Verdadero by participating in our tech class community of thinkers. I have participated in digital ways as well as verbal ways. I have been participating in ways as simple as pointing out where to find items on a webpage, and as in depth as suggesting ways to make technology related assignments in lesson plans more clear and concise. I have definitely changed my mind on the role of technology in FL classrooms. Before this, I rarely took students to work on the computers because I felt that they would waste time. Now, I am familiar with ways to make activities which stimulate the ideas of situated practice with students so that they will not be bored, and will have challenging, enriching, technology-related FL assignments. I want the work that my students do to be related to their lifeworlds. I now have many plans of ways to enrich my lessons and to make them instantaneously more cultural and authentic while incorporating technology.
A useful definition that I came to in this course was "thinking together using technology". My definition is as follows: Although many people in our class would define this differently, here is my take on it: I feel that this term embodies many things. First of all, there is thinking. There are is a plethora of parts that go into this definition, but it has to do with a person pulling in information, processing the information utilizing prior knowledge, and coming to their own conclusions. Once a person has done this, they are able to utilize the conclusions that they come to and synthesize these conclusions. The metacognition that fuses together many personal conclusions and thoughts is what embodies thinking together. Now, we must pull in the technology piece. The last part of the puzzle, technology, is utilized to fuse and synthesize thoughts and connections while communicating through digital mediums (Twitter, tumblr, facebook, etc.) When people come together over these social mediums and make explicit and implicit connections, thinking together using technology is taking place.
My True North is the feeling that I have for the following school year. Because I have been made aware of many new ways in which technology and theory can become one and help students arrive at new conclusions on the FL front, I am extremely excited for the year that is to come. I am very excited to pull all of the influences that I have been soaking up, from Spanish stories to technology to new AR practices. I am very excited to encourage thinking among my students through a community of practice. Although I referred to my students as a community of learners before, a community of practice goes one step further. I am going to encourage students to connect on multiple levels, and to scaffold one another's thinking through constructive comments online and in person.
Conclusion:
Here, I will do my best to pull all of the information, theory and technology together so that I can make sense of it all, as well as make sense of my thinking for you. First, I would like to discuss the fact that I was able to master the technologies that were set out at the beginning of this class. I am able to effectively utilize the following digital literacies: Twitter, tumblr, seesmic, disqus, flickr, facebook groups, and Wikis. My mastery of these technologies helps me to be able to participate meaningfully in discussions on a wide range of topics with my classmates, and with people beyond our class. I am able to design lessons which utilize these technologies, and through explaining portions of these genres to classmates, I know that I would be able to demonstrate the use of them to my students.In addition to being able to use these genres in effective ways with my students, I am able to contribute to meaningful conversations on topics related to foreign languages. For instance, I can search Twitter for hashtags which show people who are tweeting about issues related to FL teaching. Another use of these technologies is that I could go on flickr and search the galleries for photographs to utilize in my classroom as warm-up activities, or in addition with other texts to teach culturally based lessons. The webquest activity helped me to find a very useful free journal that I plan on following. It shows different ways that technologies are being utilized in FL classrooms.
I have arrived at my True North, or Norte Verdadero by participating in our tech class community of thinkers. I have participated in digital ways as well as verbal ways. I have been participating in ways as simple as pointing out where to find items on a webpage, and as in depth as suggesting ways to make technology related assignments in lesson plans more clear and concise. I have definitely changed my mind on the role of technology in FL classrooms. Before this, I rarely took students to work on the computers because I felt that they would waste time. Now, I am familiar with ways to make activities which stimulate the ideas of situated practice with students so that they will not be bored, and will have challenging, enriching, technology-related FL assignments. I want the work that my students do to be related to their lifeworlds. I now have many plans of ways to enrich my lessons and to make them instantaneously more cultural and authentic while incorporating technology.
A useful definition that I came to in this course was "thinking together using technology". My definition is as follows: Although many people in our class would define this differently, here is my take on it: I feel that this term embodies many things. First of all, there is thinking. There are is a plethora of parts that go into this definition, but it has to do with a person pulling in information, processing the information utilizing prior knowledge, and coming to their own conclusions. Once a person has done this, they are able to utilize the conclusions that they come to and synthesize these conclusions. The metacognition that fuses together many personal conclusions and thoughts is what embodies thinking together. Now, we must pull in the technology piece. The last part of the puzzle, technology, is utilized to fuse and synthesize thoughts and connections while communicating through digital mediums (Twitter, tumblr, facebook, etc.) When people come together over these social mediums and make explicit and implicit connections, thinking together using technology is taking place.
My True North is the feeling that I have for the following school year. Because I have been made aware of many new ways in which technology and theory can become one and help students arrive at new conclusions on the FL front, I am extremely excited for the year that is to come. I am very excited to pull all of the influences that I have been soaking up, from Spanish stories to technology to new AR practices. I am very excited to encourage thinking among my students through a community of practice. Although I referred to my students as a community of learners before, a community of practice goes one step further. I am going to encourage students to connect on multiple levels, and to scaffold one another's thinking through constructive comments online and in person.