The last assigned reading out of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts was the final chapter titled "What It All Means" as well as the epilogue.
The final chapter was a good summary of the book. It focused on the "Big Shifts" in how to teach students based on all of the new technology and sites on the web out there today. Seeing the ten big shifts in education was interesting and changed the way that I'll think about teaching my future classroom. For example, as a teacher I will look at teaching as more of a conversation than a lecture (Big Shift #4).
I thought the epilogue was a nice way to close out the book. Going through 45 minutes as an average teacher, it showed how much technology that the teacher uses on a regular basis. It reminded me of how much, as educators, we use technology in a short period of time.
My overall opinion on the book is that there were chapters that were interesting to read, yet there were several others that were not. It is difficult to apply all uses of technology to all of the content areas. I definitely learned some new ideas about Flikr and blogging that I feel confident about using in an elementary school classroom. However, some of the other chapters, such as the one on social networking, I have difficulty believing that I will use in my future classroom. The difficulty with printed books about technology is that they are outdated as soon as they come off the press. I appreciate being able to read a textbook, however, I also appreciated having supplementary videos and readings online while reading this particular textbook.
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