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Reaction: Chapter 9

Chapter 9 is the concluding chapter to the book. It attempts to answer the question of "what is all this technology going to mean for the classroom?" I think it is important to keep in mind, and the book alludes to this, that the internet is getting bigger and bigger, and students will be able to use it more for their education. The book mentions where before, students would have to research in libraries and books that would require large amounts of time that they would not do anyways, now students can simply Google whatever it is they want to look up. This is an interesting time in education. Technologies like blogs and podcasting mean that not only will students be learning, but teachers and people outside of the classroom can learn as well from what is being posted on the web. Classes will become more of a collaborative effort between students and faculty. It will be interesting to compare education in 1989 to education in 1999 and then in 2009.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is about social bookmarking web sites. The main web site mentioned in the text is Furl, which I must admit I never heard of, but then again I had also never heard of social bookmarking. It is an interesting idea however. For example, if I am doing a research project on dolphins, I can use the site to look up what web sites other people have bookmarked on dolphins as well. So instead of working alone to find information, I can use the help of other people as well. It seems like it could be a good tool in the classroom to help make research that much easier.