This is just a quick post to say thankyou to all of my friends in the blogosphere for your thoughtful and informative contributions over the last couple of weeks. It has been a great learning experience sharing our ideas in our blogs. It has certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities for when we get into the classroom as teachers. Blog On!
Firstly I would like to say how enjoyable it has been reading, viewing and listening to the postings on fellow student’s blog pages this week. Over the last couple of days however, for some reason when I access my blog using the Internet Explorer browser, which I am using for this post, I have no tool bar to add links and format the text etc. Strangely though, when I log in using Firefox, I am able to add links and format text etc. I thought I was going crazy last night when I was trying to insert a link and I couldn’t find the icon to do so. Today I decided to log in via Firefox and I was able to though it seemed to be a lot slower connection. Anyway what I am trying to say is that sometimes when using technology, it can be quite interesting as to why sometimes things work and at other times they don’t. I would like to know if anyone else in the blogesphere are experiencing strange occurances like me in my blogging experience. Happy blogging and have a good weekend!
According to reports in Side by Side (The Newspaper for NSW Public schools) Issue 15 Feb 2008, government schools are set to be the recipients of somewhere in the vacinity of $158 million dollars in funding to enhance technology and internet speed. Initially 200 schools will benefit when the funding commences in July but the aim is for all public schools to have their fair share by 2011.
I feel that the implications of this for us as Primary School teachers is that we are going to be working in an environment in which we have access to tools for learning that are vastly different from the classrooms we were once students in. We will need to adapt to these changes and be equipped to deliver lessons in ways that not only utilise the technology but also have a rationale for doing so. Students will benefit if we critically think about the use of technology in our classrooms and not merely use the technology available just for the sake of it.
I will be interested to monitor how well this funding is utilised by schools to maximise the students learning potential.
I have been perusing the internet for some quality educational blog sites. Anne Davis has written a blog posting which links to some blog sites that have been nominated for an award. This may be a collection of blogs worth viewing to get some ideas on what makes a quality blog.
