Internet Learning

They say, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and now more than ever the Internet shows how true that really is. There are so many things that we can "talk" about, but to have students to really "understand" is to show them. For example, it is very easy to talk about the heart and what parts it consist of and how it works but to really catch the students in the wonder of it all is to show it to them like this: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/circulatory-system/MM00636.
I think that as we struggle to meet the needs of our students with 21st century learning we must incorporate more and more technology into our lessons and classroom by way of the Internet. We need to connect ourselves as well as our students to the outside world. Our students will only be able to go as far as we give them the freedom to go. It is us who have to learn to not be afraid and release the confines, to push out of the comfort zone, to take the step down the path less followed as see where it leads us and them. I feel that there will be a time where the Internet will touch every part of the learning process and I am hoping that I will be one of the ones leading the way.

Instructional Strategies and the Role Technology plays in implementing them

Gone are the days of when the teacher stood at the front of the classroom writing on a chalkboard while students bent over their desks writing their spelling words ten times each so they could spell them on their Friday test. Gone are the days of standing up in front of the class, reading a book report that had been carefully written on paper with pen.
Nowdays, instead of being born with a "silver spoon" in their mouth, they are born with ipods and ipads in their hands and they hit the ground running. We must learn their language or become the enemy of the digital natives.
Nowdays, we must look at discussions in the forms of wikis and blogs, and communications as email, texting and skypeing around the world at the touch of a finger. Presentations are no longer listening to the teacher droning on and on, now it has visuals, sound and actions, sometimes even starring the students themselves. Discovery can be done in safety without fear of blowing something up and as long as there is a computer for each student, no one gets left out and students can try more than once because supplies are endless, which is what discovery is all about. Virtual fieldtrips can take every student to places they have never gone and money for the trip and the bus and the gas and eating are no longer an issue where only the rich use to go.
Out with the old, in with the new. The world is changing at a whirlwind speed and if we are going to prepare our students for that world then we must learn how to harness this new technology. We must "boldly go where no man has gone before"(Star Trek) and be not afraid to take that next step.