So, as I was making my weekly visit on one of my campuses, I kept getting requests for assistance with Blabberize. My first thought was...cool, an educator is having their students create a "Blabberize" for one of their learning artifacts. My initial thought was wrong. Booo! She just wanted to make one for herself. Very shortly after, I received more and more requests for support using Blabberize. So, on my next stop I asked, "Did someone recently show you guys Blabberize?" The answer was we have to create one for some ELL training as a homework assignment.
So now...my thoughts on that. While I do think it's a good idea to expose educators to a variety of tools they can use for learning, I think it's a poor idea to require every educator to produce something using that tool as a homework assignment. For one, the problem is that they are using the tool for teaching purposes and not for learners to use as a creation to demonstrate understanding of a topic. Secondly, by having all educators use the same tool, learners will quickly be bored of the concept when they see the same idea/tool used in each of their classes. I know the intent of exposing them to the tool was good, but the mandatory assignment makes the tool dull and repetitive. Just as we should be differentiating instruction in the classroom, we as adults should also differentiate instruction for adult learners. I love choices! Give adults choices, and they will see the value of giving our learners choices.
Weigh in your thoughts....Do you think requiring every educator to produce something with the same tool is beneficial or not very productive in means of technology integration?
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