Communication/Collaboration & Technology

Reflect on communication and collaboration and how the technologies in this week's articles could be used in a classroom

It is amazing to me remembering how we use to have pen pals when I was in elementary school. Yes, over the summer, we would write at least every other week. Now, texting, chatting, and email has made those types of communication practically obsolete. During group work, there was always the inconvenience of having to meet at some one's house or having the parents to drop all of us at the library. I remember those times of course because of the camaraderie; however, new age communication makes it more convenient to collaborate on assignments. Being exposed to how the twittering or chatting can be beneficial to education is making me recognize how these tools can be used to our advantage. Using this in an elementary setting is definitely possible. I also believe in exposing children at a young age, we give them a better chance of being successful and competing as they progress through school.
I teach language arts so I can definitely see starting a blog about novels that we have read. This helps when it takes a few weeks to read the book, and children test on this later. Perhaps they can remember discussions about the book and better answer open-ended questions