Image Courtesy of kw111786 on Flickr (Creative Commons-Attribution)

In much the same way that the Pistons made a comeback after several disappointments against the Celtics and the Lakers in the mid-80s to win the ‘89 NBA Championships, I’m making a comeback in getting caught up with my Summercore readings!

I just wanted to leave a few comments on some of the highlights from the first day and the assigned reading on blogs, wikis, and RSS as well.

Thoughts on today’s experience:

• I was impressed with the blended approach Steve and Lynne used in facilitating the sessions. There was a great mixture of direct instruction, hands-on work, partner/individual work, etc.

• The facilitators did a wonderful job of turning glitches into learning opportunities.
• The approach to create a balance between whole group and skill based groupings is excellent.
• It was great how everyone walked away today with a blog and a delicious account
• I’m hopeful that at some point in Summercore we touch upon the powerful suite of collaboration tools know as google docs. Google form use and creation is one of the many features that I’m guessing would be of interest to this group.
• I enjoyed the Boston sports references.  Even though I’m not a sox fan, the ‘86 World Series to me was one of the most exciting that I’ve ever seen (the AL and NL championships that year were extremely exciting as well).  The references also brought back memories of the great Pistons-Celtics battles in the 80s!!

Thoughts on the reading assignments:

I thought the reading was a great overview of these powerful tools. Blogs have the potential to transform the writing process into a more lively and engaging process for students. The suggestions for starting out in the world of educational blogging were excellent as well. While I would really like to see the capacity for all students to be maintaining their own personal digital learning space in the form of a blog, I also realize that it is important for teachers to gain some background and experience before this happens.

Looking forward to day two of summercore. Time to go to bed now.

Over-and-out.