Blog Post # 4

To visit the articles/videos to which I refer, please click the titles of each.

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please

The creator of this poem, Dr. Scott McLeod is a professor at Iowa State University and is the director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), which is the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. Dr. McLeod is also the co-creator of the video, Did You Know? (Shift Happens), which we were required to watch and write about previously in this class.

Dr. McLeod brings up the importance of teaching children about technology, including the use of Twitter and Facebook. I liked the way that he argued for his points, by asking others to please NOT teach their children these things and then see who is further ahead in the future, the children who learned about technology or those who were sheltered from it because of the possible dangers that can be online. I believe that he is right. If we teach children now about technology, rather than sheltering them from it because they could get into trouble, it will be helpful to them. With the way that technology is always changing and advancing, it is a good idea to go ahead and teach children at least a little about it to set them up for success in the future.



The iSchool Initiative

The student in this video is proposing a major change in the way that schools operate. He and his organization are proposing the use of the iTouch in the classroom, in place of pens, paper, maps, and textbooks. The idea is to save the schools money, since the budgets are constantly being cut, and to employ technology that is already available today through various applications on the iTouch. From reading some of the comments posted on this video, I learned that this organization has moved past talking about their plans. They have actually put iTouches into classrooms and are utilizing them everyday.

My reaction to this video was surprise! When I was in high school (not so long ago, I graduated in '09) we were not allowed to have iPods or cell phones at school. Of course, we did it anyway, we just were not allowed to have them out during class and if they were seen they were taken away. What this organization is proposing is incredible and, I think, a very good idea. I have an iPhone 3G myself, and I know that there are so many applications available in the App Store for whatever you could possibly want or need. Just yesterday I added a dictionary app, run by dictionary.com. To make use of these things, many of which are free after the initial cost of the iTouch, is a really great idea!

The Lost Generation

I really enjoyed this video! The way that it first started out seemed really depressing. The poem spoke of the new societal norms, like the divorce rate and the fact that people no longer seem to care about the environment. It talked about this "lost generation" and how there was nothing that she could do about it. Then everything changed. By simply reading her poem backward, the speaker turned a message that was depressing and dull into one of determination to change everything that was wrong with the world.

 I felt that the way that they presented the information was perfect! It not only spoke about reversing the societal norms, it actually did. I probably would not have caught that she was using the exact same words in a different order had they not been playing backward on the screen. Whoever created this video did an amazing job. I would strongly encourage everyone to watch this video. It takes a message of discouragement and makes it uplifting simply by turning everything around. Literally.




Virtual Choir

This project was really cool. Eric Whitacre took 185 people who had never met one another and turned them into a choir through the internet! I would never think to do something like this, but the result was beautiful. Their voices combined so nicely and they were not even together to create this video. Isn't it amazing what you can do through the internet?

Teaching in the Twenty-First Century

This video started out by making a point that I was thinking of while watching the iSchool initative videos. Teaching is not just about teaching kids the facts and figures, the dates or the formulas anymore. They have Google for that. Anything they might ever want to know can be found online very easily, just by clicking on your favorite search engine. This video points out that teachers are not the main sources of information anymore. We are the "filters".

 It is our job to teach students how to use the resources that technology provides for them, and about things like integrity and honesty, because they may not learn them anywhere else.We should also teach them ways to make technology work for them. Twitter does not have to be only about telling the world what you ate for breakfast, after all. It can be, and is, a tool for sharing information beyond that to your entire social network. In short, we need to find ways to use technology in the classroom, because it is becoming more and more important everyday.