A New View: D2L Discussion Summary

The D2L discussion that took place last week summarized up this class experience quite well. There was much talk of the abundance of knowledge that they feel they've gained in the past 7 weeks. For many, with this new knowledge has come a new perspective/approach to teaching. Many doors have opened. And (pardon the cheesy cliche), as a result, the view outside looks a little bit different.....

Here's what people are now "seeing":

• Many expressed their hope to be more creative in the classroom; incorporating more collaboration, and student-driven discussion.
• Everyone is in agreement that the web 2.0 tools we have been exposed to will benefit our teaching. The specific tools that people hope to take advantage of seem to vary.
• Everyone also seemed to agree that teaching science in a 21st century classroom has a continuous learning curve.
• Because of this PLNs and social networking forums are essential. Teachers have a lot to teach each other.

Speaking of social networking, while surfing twitter today I came upon a blog post that really hit home to me. The post was entitled "10 Ways My Thinking Has Changed". Judging from our D2L discussion, I feel this reflection could have been written by anyone who took this class (and the comments are worth reading through as well). I think it tells the story pretty effectively.