Pulling it all Together

I am now going through all of the things I learned and taking care of loose ends. It isn't just a matter of learning how to use different tools, but there is the issue of keeping up with them! How much time will I devote to keeping up with my blog, using Twitter, checking in on Facebook (which I haven't started yet), updating my school web page, following professional development opportunities on Discovery Learning, visiting Second Life (and trying to figure out how to get the video player at Ed Tech island to work), making podcasts, creating polls, using Delicious, keeping up with my wiki(s), adding to my Flickr account, and on and on and on?

Then there're my moodle accounts, and my personal accounts. It seems to me I have to be even more organized than ever! Otherwise, I may forget how to use some things, and, although I may not use every tool every day, I can foresee using all of these things in different ways in my classroom.

There is a lot of work to be done beforehand. I need to collect pics and data to create some of the things I want to share with my students. And there are things I won't use in class, like the cell phones, because at this time they are not practical, although I could see using them in a college class. I like the idea of having everyone respond to a poll question on their cell phones and getting practically instant results. And yes, they could use computers if they didn't have cell phones, but I think I need to lay a foundation first before I get to that point.

I am going to revamp my Computer Related Technology class which, up till now, has been pretty much keyboarding and making Word documents. I want to create a blog like this one and the 21Things one for that class and weave in things I learned in this course. I want my students to be able to handle all of these things, and as much as I hear about how my kids are Tech Natives, someone is missing the point that there are a lot of kids who may know how to use a cell phone and Facebook but who really aren't that tech savy. Some of my kids hate computers. Some of them have no access outside of school. You'd be suprised the things my kids don't know about technology, despite the popular wisdom. I want to fill in those gaps.