Fresh prespective brought by student teachers

With the recent debate on social networking producing numerous threads of discussions throughout the blogosphere, I have decided to create a thread of my own. I believe social networking has a place in the future of education, and I think teachers as well as students can mutually share in positive growth fostered by social networking sites and tools. Where years ago each individual scattered around the world had difficulty sharing messages with broader audiences, technology has now created seemingly limitless pathways to connect these nodes and persons from every country in the world. Finally, the pathways are easily accessible and anyone can provide commentary and original thoughts on virtually any topic of discussion.

Although I do not consider myself to be in the same edublogger social circles as Ewan McIntosh, Danah Boyd, Will Richardson, David Warlick, etc., I believe I do bring an important perspective to the blogosphere as a young student teacher who realizes the title of "student teacher" will most likely remain an integral part of my identity as an educator. Many edubloggers recognize their roles of "learner" will never disappear, but I think actual student teachers who are at the early stages of their careers have a fresh, unique perspective on education, that is, its state, direction, reform, practice, etc. Student teachers should begin to enter the conversations about educational technology and Web 2.0 now while their practice is undergoing, perhaps, some of its greatest maturation processes. I challenge student teachers across the country to weigh-in on issues discussed in the most popular and visited edublogger blogs in the blogosphere. I challenge my peers and colleagues, local and international alike, to share their questions, thoughts, fears, and advice with each other in hopes of creating a network created and sustained by student teachers.

The venue for these discussions and collaborations is underway, and I hope to begin to contact student teachers across the States and abroad shortly. Until then, increase the number of subscriptions in your aggregators to the point where you have enough resources to read daily about the conversations and debates taking place in the world of education.

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Image citations:

Lakerae. (2005 August 6). Earth n America plus. Lakerae's Photostream. Retrieved on January 20, 2007, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/lakerae/31756773/

Christos_m2001. (2007 July 18). Earth - globe. Christos_m2001's Photostream. Retrieved on January 20, 2007, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/christos_m/846651493/