If a timely news item; article; event; podcast; or blog post was used as a jumping off point, it might serve multiple purposes:

1] to validate the publishing of known and edu-bloggers;

2] to bring ‘new’ topics to light;

3] to seed conversations with something more than the current understandings or opinions of participants.

In regards to students leading instruction. It should never be an “all or nothing” design. There are definitely times when student lead instruction is appropriate and times when it is not. We always talk about students being very competent in their social uses of technology, sms, FB, etc., etc., but when it comes to instructional uses, information literacy, etc., etc., they are at a loss. Actually, when I think about it a little more, and if time was not an issue, (i.e. a deadline for graduating looming,) in the right environment/setting, I think students probably could develop the ability to become competent learners in the use of technology and information literate. That’s how we as adults have developed those skills. The one difference for us is that we have a lifetime of experiences that helped accelerate that learning. So, there are times when teacher lead instruction is also important.

Finally, in regards to the use of technology by teachers, (and this also relates to the statement above, and just about throws it out the window…) I have found it has been very easy to bring teachers unfamiliar with social technology tools up to the level of their students. However, the real challenge with teachers, is just about the same challenge we have for our students, getting them to understand where the use of technology can have a beneficial impact on their teaching/learning (…and their lifetime of experiences does not seem to aide in the development of instruction that effectively incorporates technology tools

Thanks.