Today, thanks to my former student Kelly, I finally had the opportunity to experience the Kindle first hand. Kelly has one of the first generation Kindles, and she brought it to me so that I could hold it, play with it, and see if I would like one. My husband wants to buy a Kindle for me for my upcoming birthday, because I love to read (especially fiction) and am always carrying books with me. Add to that the fact that I travel quite a lot and books take up a good amount of room in my suitcases.
I must say, having spent some time with this device kindled a spark in me. I loved the lightness of it (and the newer generation is even smaller and lighter), the ease of the interface (something else that has been improved on in the newer generation, as I understand), the ability to purchase books instantly and to preview them before purchasing them, the flexibility of the display, and the feel of it in my hands.
I was concerned that it would bother me that it is not easy to figure out where the next break in a book’s action is (a section break or a chapter break), something I like to know when I read because I often read within time constraints and need to make decisions about whether to continue or stop where I am. But this didn’t bother me when I tried Kelly’s Kindle. It is very easy to mark one’s place (something much more difficult if one stops mid-way in a section and uses bookmarks, as I do, and the Kindle tells you how much of the book you have read.
I am excited to get my own Kindle. We are going on vacation shortly before my next birthday, and the plan is for me to have my present in time for the vacation. I can hardly wait to get my very own Kindle!
One of the faculty members who works for me is going to use a significant amount of technology for her courses this summer. Appropriately, she teaches the Music Technology courses in our program.
She is going to use weebly (www.weebly.com) to build a custom website for her classes. This site will include an interactive syllabus, links to online articles, videos, lesson plans, and other curriculum materials. The site will also include a blog for her and a discussion group site for the students.
We are not set up across the institution for these sorts of tools. Weebly appears to be perfect for us because it offers all of this for free.
I will be very curious to see how things go with these tools in our program this summer. I would love to adapt them for the courses that I teach in the Music Education Program. Rather than do so much of our communcations via email, the students and I might be able to create more of a community online. We might be able to continue our discussions in various formats and forums outside of class. We might be able to share resources differently.
I know that friends of mine who teach in other institutions regularly use tools like these in their work. Perhaps I may end up joining them….
What I am interested to know more about is what is lost and what is gained by using these tools in one’s teaching. What, if anything, ends up working less well or being less effective? What, if anything do we end up missing out on? What are the benefits of using these tools? What do they offer that other environments and technologies do not? How does using these tools change the way that I teach, and the way that my students learn?