Opening blog Headline "excited and overwhelmed"

I greatly appreciated two aspects of the initiation of this class. First, the laid-back atmosphere of the teacher and the first night helped ease my apprehension. Although, I very much want to learn more about technology and how it might work to make my teaching more effective, I am intimidated by the mechanics and frustrated by my slowness in understanding and using the different tools and opportunities. I appreciated the reassurance that we would be working together and working through using the different tools and that I wasn't the only newbie. The second thing I appreciated was the style of the text and the voice of the author. Richardson used language that I could understand, and though I felt I was being initiated into the esoteric rites of a hidden lifestyle, I kept right up with him. His opinions and his rhetoric have already influenced how I view this subject and how it might affect my teaching. So, I have a sense of relaxation and satisfaction when I think about how the next weeks may go.

Several of the concepts Richardson touched on I feel are important. First, I thought his use of the terms "digital natives"and "digital immigrants" was right on the mark. I very much retain the accent that denotes my immigration status--but I can function in the language well enough to get by most of the time. At that point I accepted the fact that I will always be a digital immigrant. Just as Arnold Schwarzenegger can never be president, I can never be a techno native. However, we can both influence the welfare of the people we lead. My immigrant status allowed me to relax--after all, I am only striving up to my own technological potential for myself and my students and not to prove anything to anyone else!

Second, my view of using technology was immediately enlarged. I admit I looked at this class as a way to help me use techno tools to create better learning experiences, but I didn't think so much about bringing the world into my classroom and breaking down the walls. But not to dismantle the borders of my classroom would be limiting my resources. I was motivated to do something different with my freshman students in my 102 class. Because we were talking about argument, I downloaded the links to five different sites to place them at different places on a continuum that moved from a formed argument to just a statement or sound bite. We looked at three different commercials against drunk driving, a letter from the religious right against the human papillomavirus vaccine, and Bush beatboxen. This helped us define what an argument is and what is just a statement or a sound bite message. His thoughtful and persuasive treatment of weblogging has me inspired to use this as soon as I can as a classroom communication tool. I did take argument with Richardson's narrow view of more traditional composition. On pg. 31 he states, "The differences between blogging in this manner and writing as we traditionally think of it are clear: Writing stops: blogging continues. Writing is inside; blogging is outside. Writing is monologue; blogging is conversation. Writing is thesis; blogging is synthesis. For someone who is delivering a message that is bringing his opinions and experiences (or his inside) to a wider audience, who is synthesizing the words and experiences of others, who seems dedicated to opening and enlarging conversations re: his topic, this seems a overly simplistic and inaccurate statement. His following-up with " . . . none of which minimizes writing" is disingenuous and inaccurate. However, I think he is, overall, carrying out an important conversation in an accessible way, and I look forward to reading more.
Cindy