Last One! :) ... or :(

So, this is it, my final blog. I'd love to say that I will continue to blog after I leave this class, but more than likely, I will probably stop -- at least for now. It's hard for me to blog when I feel I have nothing important to say. And for the time being, I really don't. I learned SO much from this class, and it has been great having all this new technology to work with and cuss at. It's great stuff, and even when it doesn't do what you think it will, there is always a learning experience in there somewhere. So, I guess this blog finale is "ambition blogging," because if there is one main thing I have discovered in this class, it's that I really know now what kind of instructor I want to be some day.

Since I'm going to be teaching college students, I am going to be under pressure to keep up with them. I always hated it when teachers tried to talk about things they new nothing about, and tried to work technology about which they were utterly clueless. I think that's why so many teachers are reluctant to try new things. They stick with what they know, to avoid being laughed at. I really do understand that, and it helps me remind myself not to become that way. I hate being the laughing stock (I know what you're all thinking, and stop it). As obsessed as I am with Second Life right now, I have to remember to not try to use it with my future students. They'll be well into their third lives by then, and will think I'm a dinosaur for bringing it up. It's like those gomer professors that assume because we're younger than them, we automatically like the Backstreet Boys. It isn't right.

I'll admit it - I want to be the cool teacher, the one students invite to go out drinking with them (even though I don't drink - I mean, you all saw what happened when I had the Pepsi, and the cookies, and the taffy... I am still, quite frankly, bouncing off the walls). I want to be like Vicki Davis - there's no way her students could ever find her lame! It's going to be difficult, but I have to make sure to always know more than (or at least as much as) my students, so that when they come to me needing ideas for presentations, I can offer them fresh ideas, and hopefully inspire them. I don't know how you do it, Dr. Z , but rest assured, I will be picking your brain every chance I get!

Link Blogging

I've been thinking about video games lately, and whether or not they can be educational (my boyfriend is a junkie for them, but I don't think the kind he plays will make you smarter). Here is a collection of links to some good information on gaming in education.

This link talks about how gaming can be useful because it allows you "fail to success." You can test limits and not be afraid to fail, because it is just a game. I like that idea, and it makes sense. If you blow your head off in a game, you grow a new one. No harm, no foul.

http://www.wideopendoors.net/educational_technology/gaming.html



This is Brainmeld, and organization of people from the video game and educational industries coming together to create video games that would be useful in the classroom. The site contains free teaching guides that help teachers add educational video games to their curriculum.

http://www.brainmeld.org/

This is a very cool blog post by Dannette Veale, the global virtual strategist for Cisco Live and Networkers conferences. She talks about how gaming can actually enhance kids' interest in education. According to her, video games can be a "driver for exploration and discovery."


http://blogs.cisco.com/virtualworlds/comments/gaming_and_education/