Where I am now!

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When I first started the MLS program at Dominican, the thought of teaching technology to students was a little frightening.  I thought, “Kids seem to know more than I do…have you seen a seven year old use an Xbox controller or a keyboard to manipulate an online game!  What the heck am I going to be telling THAT kid!”  About two weeks into the program, I knew.  Sure, students can engage in the technology behavior that they know and love, but do they understand when, why and how to really utilize it.  Do they know how to make it work for them in a school setting, how to communicate with it, collaborate with their peers, share important content, create and disseminate?  It is a really exciting time to teach kids technology.  There is just soooo much out there and it is all at their fingertips, literally. 

Where do I stand...

Over the last 6 weeks of this most recent technology course, I have learned some tools that are going to make my life easier in the classroom and some tools that are literally just fun and engaging.  If it helps students better absorb the content that they need to cover, the more the better.  I feel pretty certain that I will be incorporating as much as I can in the library space and I hope that I am the kind of 21^st Century Librarian who is always pushing the envelope to get even more tools in students hands.  I am even more certain that this won’t be my last “Technology and Curriculum” or “Teaching Media Literacy” or “Technology in the Classroom” course.

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Great Moments

When I think about it now, I realize that utilizing technology in education is not just about teaching it, it is about being a partner in it.  Having spent limited time already in the classroom with students and technology, I have already had the fantastic experience of saying to a student, “Did you know you can do it this way?” and showing them something new and having them say back to me, “I didn’t know you could do that. That’s cool.  Did you ever do this?”  And saying back, “I didn’t.  That’s cool, too!  Thanks for showing it to me!”  It was pretty great!