Rethinking current practice......

The school librarian stopped me this morning to ask me about how I wanted to change my seventh grade culture project for this coming semester. I was caught a little off guard, it seemed like a daunting task to discuss at 7:50 on a Friday morning.

My current project involves students posting a creative, informative written piece, as well as photos to a wiki. However, I am not convinced that the wiki is the best method of delivery, as I feel that we are doing it a disservice. My students do not use it as a way to collaborate, they only use it as an easy way to post information on the web. The second major concern I have about the project is the number of staff members who are willing to aid me in the project, and making sure that no one is stepping on anyone's toes.

I think that Google Apps would be a better program to use for the project, because then students can collaborate simultaneously. However, that raises the question of how well seventh graders can collaborate on month long project. And, then there is the issue of accessibility. The district wants to get all of our students google accounts, but they are dragging their feet. And, I was asked not to have my students create separate google accounts. My school district has many resources, and the fact that I cannot work around this issue is slightly frustrating. Until they create the accounts, my hands are tied.

I don't want to continue using wikispaces, unless I am going to use it in the manner it was intended. I don't want to keep using technology just to use it. There must be something better out there......

The second issue that is happening is that Kevin, the library media specialist, does not want to step on Velvet's, the technology resource person, toes. Velvet set up the wikispaces account last sememster, and invited all of my 131 students. This sememster, Kevin would really like to create short videos that the students could watch. The students could save Velvet from having to do the prepration that she did last semester.

I think it would be great if the kids could set up their own accounts, and then I could just verify their membership to the wiki. However, I know how many glitches we had last semester, and I would like to minimize them as much as possible. And, even though Kevin has offered to create the videos, I think that it is going to be quite the project for him. I realize that part of his job is to help teachers, but I also wish that I did not need to rely on him.

Since I have been thinking about this all day, the reading was especially interesting. The lesson plan, and critique, made me rethink my current project, and then what I could do to improve on it this semester. The beginning of chapter 2, which discussed the variety of roles that play out in learning and technology, started to make me feel better about the google hangup.

I still don't know how I am going to morph the project this semester. And, I think that I am more confused than I was yesterday. But, I know that sometimes we need to try things, and if they don't work, then we try something else!