These guys are digital machines!

After checking out the Russel Street School, I became quickly overwhelmed. Wow, do I have a ways to go in terms of getting myself, my students and parents interacting online. The students at Russel Street are blogging, the teachers are interacting with the website, and the community seems to rally around technology as their main source of communication. While perusing the students' blog entries, I specifically noticed how the teachers gave feedback. It struck me as extremely cool that these kiddos were receiving instant feedback which was positive, easy to access, and right there for the world to see. I mean, who doesn't like positive feedback? And there it is, shining like a light for the world to see on the school website. 

I think that in a way, embracing technology to such a degree holds everyone involved accountable. I realize there may be some consequences to embracing technology exclusively...but I have a feeling I would be spending more time trying to come up with the cons than the pros. I see students collaborating instantly through photos and videos. I better understand the projects that classrooms are embracing because I can see them right there on my computer screen. While scrolling through the plethora of digital material on the school website, I couldn't help but feel like this school was ahead of our time. I'm not sure that every community is ready for such a switch. But, I did become more inspired to ramp up my online presence for my classroom.