A bit of a leap, but related nonetheless

Yesterday, my students read David Foster Wallace's commencement address to the 2005 graduates of Kenyon College. Today, I read a friend's blog entry that happened to be expressing very similar sentiments. While this is neat, it isn't necessarily a "technology in the classroom" topic. Then again, it is. Kenyon College is in Ohio, I'm in Minnesota. The speech was delivered orally in May of 2005, roughly three and a half years ago. Were I teaching ten, fifteen years ago, I would not only lack the transcript-from-a-video-recording, I wouldn't even know the speech had been delivered. The Internet may not be a "latest and greatest" topic, but it is certainly one that brought a relevant, real-world text to my jaded, yearning-for-a-break (we still have two days of classes) seniors. My students had substantive, thought-provoking discussion this morning because the internet brought a college commencement address into their world. Sometimes, it's the "simple" things that enrich the classroom the most.

Wikispaces as storage

I've recently been contemplating the challenges of working without a laptop at school. While the larger screen, separate mouse, and full-size keyboard of a desktop computer is wonderful, it's hard to beat the portability of a laptop. Although I do have a flash drive and the ability to email myself documents, I wish that I had better access to my files. During a discussion about class websites and storage, a friend reminded me that you can upload and download files via a wiki. Her suggestion was to post class materials on the wikispace that I've already created, which led me to think about using the wiki as a way to make my files more accessible. So, I created a "Documents" page, where I post files that I may want at home or elsewhere. There is much refining to be done, as the comment about posting files for students is also valid. We'll see where things lead....

Mind Meister

While brainstorming reading strategies for my lesson cycle on "Civil Disobedience," I tried out Mind Meister. I started a map for Thoreau's ideas about taxes. Now, however, I have a dilemma. How does this help students? Do I simply use it as a glorified organizer on the SMARTBoard? Do I spend the time having the students set up accounts and then working on the map at home? A little bit of column A and a little bit of column B? As with all new technologies and Web 2.0 tools, I struggle with the balance between enhancing student learning and playing with fun, flashy toys....

YouTube & Censorship

A colleague and I spent some time grumbling this week about YouTube and censorship. While there is a lot of content on YouTube that isn't school appropriate, there is also a lot of content that can supplement learning. However, our system is set up so that no one computer has a consistent IP address (no permanent logins to sites like Google Reader). Therefore, my computer can't be granted access to a site that is otherwise blocked. As an emerging Web 2.0 educator, this frustrates me. However, there are enough other things occupying my time, so I have choosen to not explore solutions.

Until today. Thanks to Dana Swier Huff for posting a solution on her blog! There are free, legitamte ways to access the appropriate material, even without work-access to the blocked site.