Blogs in the classroom

I am sure there must be a lot of reasons to create a blog. I came up with a short list of reasons for me:

• To express my thoughts or opinions.
• To stay connected with other teachers/ collegues. Sharing ideas and reading new ones help me expand my knowledge or understanding of a situation, a topic, or a theory.
• To stay active or knowledgeable in the field or topic. Very useful to get feedback from others, and to recive questions that help me keep reflecting.
• To make a difference. Since I have been identify as a "digital immigrant" (Prensky) I need to be up to date with technology so I can make a difference in my classes and in my students.

One tool that I really enjoy is using videos in the classroom. I have seen my students faces when they have  watched Disney movies sceens (youtube) and discover that they are still useful for teaching language and skills. No matter the century we have to work in, as teachers we have to engage our students to the content of the course, class. But with all the knowleage that surround us in so many free sources in the internet, I strongly believe that as teachers we have to concentrate in teaching thinking skills.

With this in mind, I am going to use video and this blog. I have been invited to participate in a conference in Cuenca related to the use of technology in the classroom. I am going to invite assisstants to my workshop to participate in this blog and yes, videos will be the topics of discussion and participation.

Here are the links to different kind of videos. Choose one and watch it, please. You can take notes while you are watching. You can watch it as many times as you need to. After watching the video choose at least two questions from the bank, and post your ideas.

Revising Blooms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTIBDR4Dn2g

A Day made of glass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y720CQTPKwg

Using ICTs in class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfN5SSiRoPs

What does it mean? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPO_HGafBsE


Questions:
1.- How is technology presented in these videos? What impact will technology have in education?
2.- How does technology determines teaching methods or viceversa?
3.- How is education being visualized in the video?
4.- What is the nature of communication in these future worlds presented in these videos?
5.- What conclusions might you draw from these videos towards teachers?

Looking forward to reactions.