Reaction to Day One of ED 421 and Web 2.0

I have to be honest here...

The class I was dreading the MOST this term was ED 421 because technology and I don't always get along.  I was so relieved, though, when I met Instructor Saxowsky; his calm demeanor and his willingness to work with students to truly understand technology is so refreshing and inspiring.  Now I actually think this is going to be my favorite class of the term! :D

I was super-excited when we set up our blogs, as I had always wanted to start a blog about my experiences with incorporating social justice and service learning into the high school English/Language Arts curriculum. Before the first day of class, I never knew how easy it was to create and maintain a blog.  Now I have one tool in my toolkit that will allow me to connect to other educators, like me, who are interested in community, consciousness, and social justice.  I am so excited!

This week, we were asked to explore Web 2.0 and to reflect on our experiences.

The first site I checked out was Farmigo, as I have an interest in food rights, local farms, and organic food.  I am a big believer that "you are what you eat" and that we should be conscious of where our food comes from.  Farmigo allows people to connect to local farms and buy produce, meat, and other goodies directly from the source.  When I put in my zipcode, I was surprised that Gathering Together Farms wasn't among the local providers listed, as they are very active in the Corvallis community.

Although connecting this resource to curriculum isn't apparently obvious, I thought that a visit to a local farm might be a fun addition to a unit on novels such as In Dubious Battle or Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck).  Both of these novels deal with the plight of small farms, either from the perspective of the farmers themselves or from the perspective of migrant workers. If the students were able to see the process behind local farms, these texts might be more likely to "come alive" for them.

For my second site, I used the search bar in Web 2.0 to find sites related to reading.  I decided to explore Shelfari, as it is a self-proclaimed "online encyclopedia for book lovers." This site allows readers, authors, and aspiring writers to connect and talk about the writing they are reading and/or creating.

The possibilities for connecting this site to curriculum are endless!  For example, I could ask students to create critiques of the texts they read and then post them online (instead of turning them in).  This would open doors for them to dialogue with people outside of their classroom about the things they are learning and the students that are interested in writing could possibly connect with other writers and share ideas. And the list goes on...

These sites are very helpful and I'l be sure to keep them in mind when I get further into teaching!