Thinking points from Jeff Utecht “Reach” Chapters 1 & 2
Many thoughts ran through my head while reading the first two chapters of “Reach”.
I wanted to highlight two things that jumped out at me.
1. In Chapter 2, Jeff states “Much like participating in a classroom, the more you participate the more you get out of the class.” As Jeff is referring to the use of technology, I completely agree with him.
One would think that teaching with or participating in technology is ‘passive’ learning. On the contrary, blogging, tweeting, Facebook, tumblr, etc., all take active participation to be part of. Students (who tend to be more fluent in technology) are able to pick up social networking and using technology very quickly.
Another facet is that new forms are constantly popping up, which allows people to pick and choose what, where, and how they are going to communicate with the world. You are also able to choose who you will communicate with, who you will follow, and follow your interests.
2. Later in Chapter 2, Jeff makes the point that “Using you network to help you in your job is the first step and where most people start, but is can also easily be used to help students learn and create connections for them around learning outcomes.”
This is a great point that Jeff makes. As the world gets smaller through the use of communication, we need to increase the use of technology, and not only allow students to use it, but to plan for the use in our lessons. Jeff highlights two examples of this use in schools. These teachers and schools that have a one to one computer ratio have a huge advantage over other schools, as they are able to utilize real time learning and communication between students and teacher, and other all over the world. Google docs is a great example of this real time communication.
Many thoughts ran through my head while reading the first two chapters of “Reach”.
I wanted to highlight two things that jumped out at me.
One would think that teaching with or participating in technology is ‘passive’ learning. On the contrary, blogging, tweeting, Facebook, tumblr, etc., all take active participation to be part of. Students (who tend to be more fluent in technology) are able to pick up social networking and using technology very quickly.
Another facet is that new forms are constantly popping up, which allows people to pick and choose what, where, and how they are going to communicate with the world. You are also able to choose who you will communicate with, who you will follow, and follow your interests.
This is a great point that Jeff makes. As the world gets smaller through the use of communication, we need to increase the use of technology, and not only allow students to use it, but to plan for the use in our lessons. Jeff highlights two examples of this use in schools. These teachers and schools that have a one to one computer ratio have a huge advantage over other schools, as they are able to utilize real time learning and communication between students and teacher, and other all over the world. Google docs is a great example of this real time communication.