Saturday, February 12, 2011

Blog Assignment 4

Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please? by Scott McLeod:

     I liked Dr. McLeod's take on this. I like how he made you wonder the entire time if he was really against technology. He makes a bunch of valid points though. Technology can be dangerous; sexting, cyber-bullying, cheating, predators, porn.. it all exists. It's all out there. However, it's out there in the real world too, not just online. So, I think it is extremely important to not only teach about the positives of technology, but the negatives too. I think we in EDM should also be taught the negatives of technology. I think we should be taught about parent control settings in addition to blogging, skyping, twitter, etc. After all, if computers are going to take over schools and the world in the near future, don't we need to learn how to protect our children to some extent? Having a child of my own, I think so.
     Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Education Administration Program at Iowa State University. He has received numerous national awards for his technology leadership work, including recognitions from the cable industry, Phi Delta Kappa, and the National School Boards Association. Dr. McLeod blogs regularly about technology leadership issues. Also, Dr. McLeod is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues. 

The iSchool Initiative:

     My first question after watching the video is who is going to pay for these? Is the school going to provide them like they provide books or is it going to be the responsibility of the parents? If so, what about the families that have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 kids? Are they going to get assistance? I know I  went to school with two different families that each had 12 children. So at $150 a piece, that's almost $2,000. And what happens when one break or messes up or freezes? I know my internet at home goes out at least once a month. Over the summer when I was enrolled full-time in summer courses, my internet was down for a week. What will happen then? Do the students get counted as absent, do they get penalized and have to make up the work that they missed? Will they just fall behind? In my opinion, technology is not quite there yet; it has not been perfected enough for a school to go completely technology-based.
     In addition, I truly believe that children need a classroom environment. They need that experience, that outlet. When a school turns technology-based and you attend "class" by logging in online, what does that do for social interaction? This is the same reason I would never homeschool my son. I think they need to be surrounded by children their age and experience learning hands-on. That's how they learn and how they grow... not staring at a computer, iphone or ipad all day.

The Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed:

     Very clever I must say. It is sad to say that in today's work, a lot of people do put work before family, rely on material things for happiness, divorce rates are rapidly increasing, and the rising generations are becoming ever more apathetic and lethargic. And the video is right, it will remain true unless we reverse it, but how? I think now more than ever we need to reevaluate the importance of family, work, money, technology etc. We need to return to our roots and realign our priorities; that's where change begins.

Together We Can Change the World

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir:

     Although I am still for social interaction, this video was a great demonstration of one of the many uses of technology. It is crazy to think that 185 people from all around the country could collaborate and make such an amazing video; it was very creative and interesting to see!

Teaching in the 21st Century:

    What does it mean to teach in the 21st century? It means you not only have to teach facts and content, but you also have to teach skills as well. You have to integrate technology (in moderation, in my opinion) into the classroom to enhance these skills. Since technology is expanding and everchanging, the upcoming generations need to be familiar with how to utilize every source that is at their disposal, but at the same time, need not be reliant on it. Teaching in the 21st century also means that you must challenge, push and engage your students.

4 comments:

  1. I think what you said in your post about "Don't teach your Kids this stuff. Please?" had a really great point. I agree that it would be a great idea for the negatives to be added into the edm curriculum. I know that all of these privacy settings and parental controls are out there, but I don't know much about how to use them. It had never concerned me because I don't have students or children of my own yet, but I will one day and will need to know how to use them.

    When it comes to the iSchool Initiative,
    I do want schools to become technology based. However, not necessarily through Ipod touch. I do completely agree that students need a school environment though. I would never want elementary and secondary education to be online classes. Children need the social interactions and education just as much as they need the academic education.

    In "The Lost Generation" post,I love your picture. Where did you find it and who is it created by?

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  2. Well written, well argued, well reasoned. I think you overestimate the ability of society to "reign in" technology, but this is a very good post. And I think you underestimate to see the power of technology to transform the teaching process, but you have made you case well.

    I especially like your suggestion on a session on how to teach correct ways to use the internet.

    And I have one question. You write:"It means you not only have to teach facts and content..." Really? Or can we identify our task correctly if we say we have to:
    1. Teach students how to ask questions.
    2. Teach students how to gather information to attempt to answer those questions.
    3. Teach students how to evaluate the information they gather and then apply it to their question.

    Where does "teaching facts and content" enter into the equation. Think about it some more.

    We have our differences but well done!

    AnnMerritt Taylor asks where you got the picture you use with "The Lost generation". A very good question. When I hold my mouse over the picture I should be able to see a little box with the source of your picture in it. That is what the title modifier does. It is required on all images. Be sure you have done the alt modifier tags as well. I am using safari at the moment and need to be in Firefox to check.

    Please correct on this image and all others.

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  3. Dr. Strange and AnnMerritt,

    I have looked at my blog using Internet Explorer and Firefox and when I place my mouse over any of my images, the URL for that image appears. Please try it again and if you still can't see it, let me know what to do. I applied title modifies to every picture as I uploaded them to my blog.

    Thank you.

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  4. Sam,
    I totally forgot about the title modifiers! Blonde moment! Sorry about that! I wasn't trying to call you out or anything, I was just genuinely curious. Now that I put my mouse over it, I see the title of the website. Ha ha. My bad!

    ReplyDelete