The Socially Networked Classroom

Any book focusing on technology integration catches my attention lately, so I bought The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age, when I heard about it via EC Ning book clubs. Although I did not have the book in time to read it for the actual book club, I plan on going back through the discussions. Another aspect that caught my attention with the book is that the forward is by Kylene Beers, someone who inspires a lot of respect.

This weekend at the start of my spring break I decided to finally get to reading the book. The layout was interesting grouped like coffee sizes: short, tall, grande, and venti, with a bonus chapter at the end titled refill. I always enjoy seeing creativity with titles and headings, so it was fun to see how he came up with that idea. The book progresses from classrooms that have very limited access to technology (short) to a high level of access (venti). Yet, he focuses on regardless of the size (or amount of technology available), the coffee on the inside is still the same. 

I liked that he had this attitude to encourage technology integration at different levels depending on individual contexts. Because I am already started on integrating a larger amount of technology in my classroom, the beginning chapters were not as helpful, but I still like the idea as a resource to meet the needs of educators where ever they are at in the process all in one book. 

My favorite component of the book was that it had a lot of lesson ideas including rubrics. Although I have already been integrating some of the ideas, such as on-line book discussions, they were still helpful because it was an opportunity to reflect on how other teachers are setting them up and assessing them. 

As Kist mentions, one of the biggest concerns with integrating more technology is making sure that students are safe. I appreciated that he brought this topic up various times with comments on how other teachers are addressing this in their classrooms. 

The book also got me thinking of having students do electronic portfolios, rather than traditional paper versions. Next year my co-worker with be teaching the official technology class, and I talked to her about how keyboarding would be one of the most beneficial skills for the students to become more proficient at for long term success. I am excited that they will  have a stronger base, which will facilitate everything I want to do in my room with writing. I will experiment with electronic portfolios via wikis. I just posted about how Troy Hicks inspired me to branch out into the world of wikis, so this is one more consideration I will think about as I explore. 

I am thrilled that I see more technology books popping up all the time, as well as websites, such as EC Ning and blogs that provide access to other teachers exploring with technology.