Learning WITH My Students

Okay, students. So I want to spend some time reflecting-in-writing on my new understandings of what it means to be a teacher of teachers in the digital writing workshop. 
I find the "reflection-in-action" that is required is tremendous.  Actually, I wonder if being able to reflect/respond/redirect/remember/ immediately in the moment is one of the key attributes of this Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge.   Obviously, teachers have always needed to be 'ready' for the teachable moment, but it feels like there is a greater disposition needed of the teacher to be 'ready' to be TAUGHT as well as to facilitate the TEACHING in that same moment.  

I don't know if I am explaining this very well....For example, I am thinking about what happened tonight in class when I thought Diigo was a site that needed to be purchased in order to be used.  Even though I knew it was a useful social bookmarking site, I didn't have a lot of familiarity with how to ACTUALLY USE the program because I didn't think that was available.  However, when Melissa G. shared that she had downloaded a freeware version of the tool, but she wanted to know if she could highlight documents she had bookmarked, even if she wasn't using her home-base computer... I had to learn right along with my students and we had to teach each other....

I am curious to know more about the Diigo site now and whether or not it would be a better site to use than Google Reader?    I also am curious to know what blogs the students will find and use as a part of their Genre Pieces Project.   And now....I am wondering if I need to change the expectations that students primarily look for examples of children's literature and YA literature as their examples of the different genres or if I should give equal access to the other source material.

Oh, so here is another realizations I have come to when re-envisioning my classroom as a digital learning community.    It really ISN'T as simple as saying we now have a new assignment (blog versus printed journal).   The fact that the students' writing is PUBLIC/published right now gives me a greater sense of guilt when I don't read the students' posts each week.   I want them to know that I DO value their work, even if I cannot immediately read and respond to it.