As I read this chapter, it ironically referred to a book that my mom just finished reading, "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Mom had me find and buy this book for her on half.com and since completing her reading, has spoke extremely highly of it.
I went upstairs to get this book from the shelf for my own reference in blogging. It was filled with post-it markers throughout the pages. I noticed one that said "Brandi on teaching," and this is what I found:
"Some kids are just born [curious], but for the many who are not, the best way to make kids love learning is either to instill in them a sense of curiosity, by great teaching, or stimulate their own innate curiosity by making available to them all the technologies of the flat-world platform so they can educate themselves in an enormously rich way." (Friedman, 2006)
Before today, I had never connected online or technological avenues such as blogs to be appropriate in the school setting. As Beers said in this chapter, they are mostly "online diaries." But why not? This is a fantastic way to bridge the generation gap between schools and students, and teachers and students (and it saves paper too!). Still, in Collin's case, his passion wasn't his blog - it was the environmental issues that perplexed and drove him. So this may be the "cool" new thing the students get excited about at first, but as a teacher, I must find a manner in which to challenge them and allow them to learn. Yet, I cannot lose sight of what goes on beyond the classroom in our community, society and world and make sure these important factors are brought into the learning community.
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