Chapter 7

Chapter 6 is about ways that technology devices and internet resources can assist in the formation of collaborative work of communities. I got excited when I realized what the chapter was about because it is essentially what my inquiry question is about. It’s been obvious to me for a while now that the internet has become more than just a place to find information but rather a way to communicate with people all over the world as well as to receive information from these people and others. I have a lot of relatives and friends that insist that technology is reducing the meaning of relationships because nobody meets face to face anymore. I think the opposite of this is true though and feel that technology is facilitating the means for connecting us and increasing the opportunity for building relationships and social exchanges with one another.


As a future teacher I plan to use a lot of what this chapter discusses. I particularly liked the point the chapter made about how people often think differently. Although I feel class discussions are important and helpful in developing student learning I also think online ones would be beneficial as well. Obviously some people have a higher level of verbal intelligence than others and an online discussion would give everyone the time to reflect on an argument before carefully presenting it to others.

I spent a little bit of time going through the various technologies discussed in the chapter, some of which I was already familiar with, and especially liked the chart on page 158 about the videoconferencing ideas and examples. The list contained a lot of ideas that I had never thought of before such as town hall meetings or the idea of “a remote teacher or student role playing a historical or literary figure, sharing a special experience with a larger audience”. What a fun idea! I also look forward to creating a podcast after reading about them in the chapter. The idea of podcasting, where anyone can become an independent producer and distributor of audio and video content that can be offered worldwide, is very exciting to me because it gives teachers open access to hundreds of thousands of podcasts that they can use to help their students better learn in their classes. I have to remember to triangulate the information found in the podcasts before presenting them to the class since anyone can make one though.