Mod 4 reflections on articles/video

I will start with the Lynn Ilon article on collective intelligence while I find the reading very interesting there was thing that kept creeping in my mind, what if someone inserts bogus or incorrect information into the collective and no one sees it.  You are just perpetuating bad information.  If schools as this point do not consider Wikipedia a valuable resource for students (and Wikipedia is a collective intelligence) then how can we assume it is good for our schools.  What I see collective intelligence being useful is a tool in the classroom.  I would use it as an activity to get students collaborating on a new subject, bounce ideas around and have them condense this collaborating down to what they need to know and use that to gain even better understanding of the subject.  But I would only use it as a tool. 

Bullock’s article was a good read, he is questioning how collective intelligence is affecting the new teachers and the educators educating these new teachers.  It is interesting that in the article Bullock never really states what side he lies on but he does say with all the new technologies out there EVERYONE needs to figure out how they fit into their schools and use these tools.  Bullock states in the last paragraph “these questions demand rigorous investigation. . .” (47) which says to me before we just throw all this new technology into a classroom we have to find out teach those that need to be taught, how the technology will be used and make sure we are not just using to use, it has to be a strong tool for the classroom. 

The Educause article starts with a scenario that has the student using blogging, RSS feeds, networking sites and sharing work to be critiqued; honestly, none of this is new to me, I have been introduced to all of these things at Findlay.  I think if the tool fits a need in the classroom then it should be used.  Again, we can’t just make students go to networking sites just because that is what everyone else is doing.  All of these applications need to have authentic uses and help students produce great work.  (I think I am kinda tired of typing that.)

I thought to myself when I was watching the video this girl knows how to organize a desktop and maximize apps and such.  I want her to teach me how to use my pad more efficiently!  But I am still more of a paper and pen person.  I read the research take notes and then write according to my notes, if that is not productive, sorry.  I know there are lots of students like this 7^th grader but I am not one of them but as I type this I don’t think I would discourage my students as long as they were using their PLE appropriately and not playing games.

This was a tough subject for me, I kept thinking as I was reading these are tools not new ways for schools to structure themselves or teachers to completely teach this way.  It was hard to see them any other way.  So interesting reads yes, but I would need much more convincing to not use as tools in my classroom.