Journal 1

Shifflet and Toledo, Rena and Cheri (2008, July). Extreme Makeover: Updating Class. Learning Connections, Retrieved July 14, 2008, from http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjheil65.googlepages.com%2FJournal1.pdf&images=yes

Question - With the interaction occurring online, such as with the example of the newsletter, how can students maintain interpersonal and collaborative skills in the physical world?—

One way that students could maintain and develop these skills of dealing and negotiating with others physically and verbally is to have them use a use a computer as a group in class as well as on their own outside of class. Discussing the nature and course of a project in the presence of your collaborators is very different than responding to text on a screen. Once expectations and roles have been determined then the interaction online will have that much more depth and weight.

For the most part I was a shy student so my interaction and contribution to the classroom was very minimal. I would have benefited from these networking tools because the comfort level would have been greater with time to formulate and construct my points. I usually had something to add in class yet didn’t feel confident enough to raise my hand so even if I received some negative feedback online I feel that I would have been more in my element and able to have a dialogue as opposed to all those eyes bearing down on me in class. Ultimately the hope would be that comfort online would foster comfort in the physical world and the human element of exchange would be made that much better.

Mader and Smith, Jared and Ben (2008,July). Blogging Right Along. Learning and Leading with Technology , Retrieved July 14, 2008, from http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjheil65.googlepages.com%2FJournal1.pdf&images=yes

Question- How could you maintain a degree of consistency and completeness in these summaries of class material?—
I could see this rotating log of the material and lessons covered in class having swings in its depth and thoroughness so some sort of rubric or length would have to be required. Some basic areas of the classroom activities would have to be addressed, such as, what was the purpose of the lesson? What did you learn? Define some of the term used in the lesson.

I like this idea of having students write what they have brought away from a particular lesson because it shows how effective the lesson was in presenting the material but it also shows what the student took away from it and then what they thought of it. As opposed to conventional testing where the aim is to determine specific pieces of retention, these summaries and reflections that are read by the whole class show how the student interpreted and then expounded on the material and how they may apply it to other areas of their lives. These differing perspectives being disseminated to the whole class and having the lessons reproduced in this form is helpful to the students and to the teacher because if the students are not quite able to interpret or retain the lesson then the other students will not feel so alone in their confusion and the teacher will see that a new lesson or tactic is needed.