Communities Beyond the Classroom

This chapter was about community building with technologies which I feel as though is something that is a relatively new concept. When I was in school we didn't have the means to communicate instantaneously or through computers at all and now students, teachers, and parents can all communicate though computers on a regular basis. My favorite quote from the book,"the internet enables communities to move beyond geographical boundaries and provides a vehicle for people around the world to interact and learn together," I think really shows the full potential to which we can stretch the idea of making use of the technology that we have. I think that students can learn a lot from these kinds of experiences and that as teachers we should offer them to students as often as we can.
I also liked the knowledge forums. I think that this is a unique way for students to show what they know and simultaneously learn from their peers. I also liked the fact that it is web based so that students can access their forum from anywhere. It also requires them to research their own topic of inquiry which helps them to learn the subject matter more.
I think that I will use many of these tools in my classroom. I find them to be not only a good way for students to learn (and in different ways than lecture and worksheets) but it also helps them to build social skills and communicate with others. These are important skills and in a changing world linked to technology it is important for them to be able to know the way to communicate on the internet as well.