Why tech? Why now? WHY NOT!!!

Over the past few years, I have been integrating more and more technology into my classroom. Technology and the use there within have been growing every since, well I can really remember. When I was in school, the biggest and more "interesting" technology was the use of Laser Discs  into the classroom. Remember those? They were quickly put to the curb by VHS tapes, which itself was kicked to the curb by DVDs. Today, DVD sales are plummeting and the rise of instant, streaming videos and websites have taken the place of "hard" technology materials. 

My point is this, technology changes quickly but we must stay abreast of all of the tech that is out there. Technology is quickly moving towards the Web 2.0 (Richardson and our other authors would argue that we are already there but we haven't embraced it yet as an educational society). These hard techs, overheads, projectors, and the like are quickly being replaced by Skype, Twitter, Second Life, and other interactive techs that require little funds to use and don't take up any space like those pesky Laser Discs did. 

On a sidenote, for those of you who don't know what a Laserdisc is, do a little research - its basically a super big, CD frisbee that plays video. 

http://www.lddb.com/

I had the pleasure of being asked to be a part of a my schools professional development day but this time, as a presenter. 

ME? A presenter? I mean it's one thing to get up in front of a room of 12 year olds who hang on every word you say but this, this is different. These are my peers, many on them are much more experienced than I and should be the ones presenting. But then I realized something, the presentation material that I was going to be teaching about was BLOGGING! 

It hit me pretty hard after that, I have stayed ahead of the curve with the new tech. and now I was expected to teach about it to my peers, many of whom have never heard of blogging. How was I supposed to teach about this? Would I have them create their own? How would I make this relevant to them? How could I convince them that it is a safe, secure way to interacting with their students and a way from their students to be a part of the class OUTSIDE the classroom?

I have some s'plaining to do. 

My outline was laid out and I realized something - to make this relevant, I need to teach about our students first and WHY they need and BEG us to use this tech in our classrooms. By doing this and presenting the readings we use in our online class, my spectators understood why blogs were important. They then blog searched for topics in their fields and created their own blogs. 

Some found this exciting - a new tech that is easy to use and practical. 

Others had a hard time making a blog and were detriment-ed by lack of technological use in their lives and classrooms.

A few found it pointless and a time waster. They found that their old way of doing things were better and one person refused to create a blog because she didn't want her personal information on the web. (???? - I was baffled by that: why did you sign up to take my seminar then??)

Even though I did not break through to everyone, I was still happy with my seminar. I showed everyone that Blogs can be used in every facet of education. From counseling to music education, blogs can be a part of the classroom. 

I believe that this type of tech (ones that are online and free to use) will be around much longer than other pieces of technology has in the past (Hello, I'm looking at you, BetaMax). If we use it, they will learn!

Good night and good tech!