Please Welcome My Students!

[Karen Richardson]

Greetings, VSTE Ningers! Next week, I will begin teaching the two-credit technology course for pre-service teachers at William and Mary. I have taught the course for over five years now, and it has changed significantly in those years. When I inherited it, it was primarily a technical course where students learned how to use word processors and spreadsheets, and the final project was always a webquest. Now the course is more about using technology in the classroom. While students still learn a few technical skills, most of them already know how to use the computer so we focus instead on how technology can support teaching and learning. You can view two recent interations of the course here and here. And, I am almost done with this year's course site so feel free to take a peak.

In the past few semesters, I have required students to keep weblogs to reflect on their learning. I have never been overly happy with the assignment: it tended to be about quantity rather than quality, and few students really got into the assignment. They posted the required number of times to fulfill the assignment, but I was never satisfied that they grasped the potential power of this tool for themselves or their students.

This semester, in an effort to make this assignment more meaningful and authentic, I am going to ask my students to join the VSTE Ning community where they will blog on a weekly basis and both post and participate in discussion forums. I'll create a special group for them, but I'm hoping you'll find some time to interact with them. My ultimate goal is for them to see the future potential of being part of this online professional learning community.

[Kay Lera]

Wow! That is helping students to connect with the "real world". Great idea. I look forward to reading their posts.