What an idea!

I had never thought about doing something differently versus doing something different before this week, but this is a very powerful idea presented by Dr. David Thornburg of the Thornburg Center. He described teacher's use of technology in the classroom, and he says that very often technology is used to do something differently, meaning that we are doing the same thing in a new way. An example of this would be wordprocessing software. Using this software allows us to more easily create a typed document, but essentially we are still just typing. By contrast, creating a blog would allow us to do something different. It would allow us to access an audience we would otherwise not be able to reach. This is doing something completely different.

As I thought about that this week, I found that I most often use technology to do something differently. I want to offer my students the opportunity to get all they possibly can from technology, but I have been limiting them to creating PowerPoints and Word Documents. I am really a bit afraid of stepping out and doing something completely new. I would like to introduce blogs and wikis. I am just not sure of the logistics of it all, and I would love it if someone experienced in this could offer any suggestions.