with a week's worth of exploring some online educational resources under my belt, i've come to some initial conclusions & thoughts about these resources:
*FURL is a great resource for teachers or any other professional. so far i've been investigating the issue of teacher merit pay, and using furl i've been able to weed out insignificant articles and save relevant ones. this is helping me develop a more comprehensive view of the issue. that way, once i am working as a teacher, i will have solid ground on which to stand as we navigate through this issue (it's currently an issue in oregon and will probably continue to be so when we graduate).
*IGOOGLE is interesting and i have had mixed success using all of the components. i am not too familiar with using spreadsheets, etc and got somewhat lost in cyperspace when navigating to those tools.
the overall issues i am working to overcome using this technology are:
*moving past newspaper articles and insignificant topics and delving deeper into actual research articles for improving teaching: i've had lots of luck with igoogle and furl keeping up with current education issues and news topics, but not so with real research or discussion of methods, lessons, etc. i know they are out there and i'm confident i will find them as we move forward with the class.
*time dedication to exploring these resources: i believe increased familiarity will come with increased use, and thus will follow increased relevance as i more effeciently navigate through the bs and get to the real good stuff. but as a teacher i wonder what the prinicpal would think if he/she always saw me just sitting on the internet during my prep time. i believe with more practice i could incorporate a positive balance between internet researching, maintaining a classroom blog or website, and completing other prep tasks in the classroom.
*reliance on online resources squelching my own creativity: i worry that if every time i need to do a lesson, knowing that i could probably find a wonderful idea online, i would rely too much on these resources to the expense of my own creativity. or, in the same train of thought, how to balance time online using these resources with time spent working in person with collegues to brainstorm and create new programs together. i feel like with limited time it will take a real balancing act and dedication to get quality results from online resources while simultaneously maintaining personal creativity and positive peer/coteaching relationships.
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