Blog Post #4

Blog Post #4?  

I'm losing track of my blog posts.  It has taken me some time to figure out how to get into the blog to make posts.  It seems so easy!  And yet it is not...  

This week in class, Erin Aldrich presented on how to adapt the google application My Maps to use in the classroom.  I thought she had some fun suggestions, such as doing restaurant reviews.  We also got to explore Google Docs.  I found the mind-mapping activity quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the creative aspect of it--messing with colors and shapes and squiggles--and it was interesting to be creating a document in real time with other students.  There was an element of spontaneity to it that I found refreshing.  Also, developing a document to outline the mind map happened extremely quickly!  This could be efficacious in a classroom environment when developing study guides or other collaborative documents.  

There were also several concerns that need to be addressed.  Cynthia and I were partners for this activity, and I'd say that neither of us is as intuitive with technology as others in the class.  We needed more direction and it took us longer to get started.  Someone wrote "Conspicuously Blank" in our section, which I thought was rather funny since I am highly self-conscious of my behind-the-times technological expertise and like to poke fun at myself for it.  However, in another setting and with other students, these types of comments, spontaneously written and as easily deleted with no evidence, could be problematic.  I do want to clarify that I thought this comment was funny, and whoever wrote it--thank you for giving me a laugh!!!  In other situations, however, this type of activity could get out of hand and distract students from the task at hand.  

While I found the spontaneity fun, there was a part of it that felt out of control.  Sometimes there were too many things happening on the screen at once.  Furthermore, the document would often jump as people added new content, which can be jarring to the eyes, especially when you're trying to keep track of where you're writing in the document.  Also, the colorful markers of other contributors moving around all over the place was also distracting.  I wanted to read what everyone was writing at the current moment, but with so many contributors all writing and editing at once, it became difficult.  

My last concern regards a previous comment I made above about how "efficacious" these documents are, within the context of saving time or creating things quickly.  I have developed a skepticism of new technological applications that bill themselves as time-savers. They often take time to learn, then, as soon as you learn them and streamline them into your routine, they are outdated and no longer serve the function that you hoped they would.  Then you have to spend time learning a new one.  Also, I think it is healthy to say "STOP" to the amount of work you are doing.  If these time-saving technologies only serve to make us work more and do more, well...  I like living my life.  When you apply this to the classroom, how much are we asking our students to do, and to what purpose?  So they have time for more homework?  More classwork?  More learning?  How much learning can you do in a day?  Is this really helping or is it creating more work?  Or is it creating overload?  I think it's important to think about this as an instructor, so that the activities have meaning and purpose, not just a "time-saving" purpose.  

On the whole, I found the exercise fun and interesting and would LOVE to apply it to a classroom.  Now I just have to figure out how...