Thursday, October 8, 2009

Week 2 Comment: Amy White's Blog


Amy White's Blog Address:  http://amytwhite.blogspot.com

Amy's original posting: 
I'm just in a blogging state of mind. Also, Monday Night Football is on and I'm being ignored--which isn't necessarily a bad thing! So, I wanted to share one of the best resources, no, communities I've found online. It is a Ning site for English teachers created by Jim Burke, author of books about reading and literacy, called English Companion Ning. Burke has created a community of teachers who share and comment, have virtual book clubs, commiserate, blog, and talk to each other. It is an awesome resource for both new and experienced teachers. This is such a progressive concept for high school teachers. I am old enough to remember when nobody shared ideas--or anything! We all went to our individual rooms and kept all our materials to ourselves. This Ning is invaluable in sharing media, tools and information for teachers of all experience levels. What Burke has created is a huge faculty lounge without all the whining and complaining. His Ning is beginning to get noticed by the rest of the educational community as articles point to it as an example of what great things can be found on the internet. It's a pretty cool site. If you are an English teacher I would definitely recommend checking it out. I've included a photo of the many groups teachers have formed within the English Companion community.

Mike's response to Amy's Blog:
The idea of teachers from different parts of the globe collaborating on their profession is pretty amazing, considering that it is a brand new practice. I can only imagine how much more enhanced my education would have been growing up if my teachers had access to information as today's teachers do. There are several websites on the Internet that are dedicated to just that:

http://globaleducation.ning.com/

http://teachustech.ning.com/

http://arted20.ning.com/

http://nextgen.ning.com/

http://imoodle.ning.com/
 

Last month, England's Department for Schools, Children and Families announced that they are going to invest $9 million in Web 2.0 technologies for teachers (Alderson, 2009). A recent study shows that children are now more technologically literate than they were several years ago. It is the government's hope that teachers will incorporate teaching Web 2.0 technology platforms such as Ning, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube into their curriculum.
 

Alderson, D. (2009, September 7). Education 2.0 - the benefits technology brings to teaching. Retrieved from http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/27777/print

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