First Try

 

 

 First Try....

This is the beginning of my first blog on blogging for my Meredith College M.A.T. course, "Power Tools for Educators".  I'm experimenting with blogging as a tool to use in elementary classrooms.  This course will hopefully make me more familiar and comfortable with using different types of technologies to enhance, enrich and extend teaching for all learners.    Blogging seems like a great tool to carry out some of Professor Bonk's "Learner Rights", such as "The right to share your learning-related discoveries and ideas with others for their prompt and candid feedback" and "The right to share content that you create as well as comment on or evaluate the educational resources that you find."  I'm a little cautious about how much "sharing" I want to to do about myself.  Sharing ideas is great but maintaining one's privacy is also very important to me. 

Here's the link to Professor Bonk's, of Indiana University, web site:  

http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/

He'll be speaking at Meredith College on Wednesday, May 16, at 5pm, and I'm interested to hear him talk about the "open education movement" and how his "Learner Rights" can be applied to the elementary classroom. Some thoughts:

• I'm interested in how his book has been received in China.  It is difficult for my to see how a country that has so much control over the media and free speech would view Bonk's ideas about "rights", such as "The right to access any content you need at any time time you need it," as complementary with their policies.  Here's a country that confiscates your laptop at the airport upon arrival and gives you an "approved" lap top for your use during your stay.  Wouldn't they find much of what Bonk says oppositional about the open education movement and accessing any information for one's learning?
• In regards to Bonk's right  "to access any content you need at any time you need it," who does this apply to?  does this include children?  Should there be limits to what content children can access, or his he saying that children should have access to all content?
• Who should inappropriate resources be reported to as outlined in Bonk's Learner Responsibility #9, "The responsibility to report online educational resources that are inappropriate or potentially harmful (as well as the people who placed them there)".  What steps should be taken when people place inappropriate educational resources on the web?  How does this fit in with his "open education" philosphy?