Thing #5

I listened to a podcast from the website teachers 2.0.  A teacher who introduces different technology into the classroom hosted the podcast. 

I can’t really see a way of using podcast in my classroom because I have had college professors who have used podcasts and they can come across, well, very dry and boring when trying to convey a lesson.  I can, however, see using YouTube where I can give examples and show how to actually work a problem. 

What I did like about the podcast was that it was a way for me to learn what other teachers are doing in their classroom and I can download it right to my phone (if I can find the podcast on iTunes) and listen to the podcast on the go.That is a really neat tool that I could see being very useful.

The Horizon Report had all kinds of emerging trends that us, as new teachers, will have at our fingertips.  One thing that really stood out to me was the use of social networking tools.  I was wondering if we could have professional Facebook pages (I am personally against parents and students “friending” teachers) and use it as another tool to communicate with parents and students? How would you use Facebook and/or twitter as a teacher? I am just curious what others have to say on that topic.

School 2.0 means to me that I get to be a teacher in a great period of time! I can use YouTube and blogs to interact with my students and parents. Schools of the future are going to have to take that leap into the future and realize all the amazing things we, as teachers, have at our fingertips.  We can teach from our living rooms (i.e. set up our laptops and give more examples from our assignments so students can access that information when it's convenient to them.) Also, we can communicate with the busy parents who work 2nd or 3rd shifts and aren't available during normal business hours via email and comments on blogs (and who knows what else is right around the corner!)