Chapter 9 Reflection

Technology is a part of life that is not going to go away. Those of us who do not embrace it now must understand the possibilities of the new technologies from the inside, if we want to guide the future of education. It has been said that for the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable, and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society. Typically, kids know much more about devices such as television, games, computers, instant messaging, and cell phones. Video games provide the clearest case of the technology generation gap. Parents see one side to the story which includes addiction and corruption of the youth, while kids are developing sophisticated problem-solving and communication skills in virtual worlds beyond the experience of many parents. Virtual communities are places where people can find others who share their liking for certain things. It is a place without any involvement in schools and with little adult involvement. Once again, parents view this online time as more time that kids are not reading books.

Technology has created new jargon such as hip-hop slang, instant message conventions which make technology more desirable. This is the time for technological visionaries to act. We are now in the same stage in the second educational revolution that we were in during the last decades of the 19th century. We need strong leadership from innovative educators to make sure that the new system embodies our society's critical goals for education.

Chapter 8 Reflection

Imperatives of the technologies that are driving the revolution are customization, interaction, and learner control. Schools need to embody more individual support and choice in how and what students learn and engage children in more challenging and realistic tasks that reflect the uses of knowledge in the world. I find it interesting that kids today spend over 6 hours per day interacting with technology. This turns out to be more time than they spend in school and almost as much time as they spend sleeping. The book talks about setting up national credentials that can be administered on computer or by trained professionals at any school or learning center. I do not think this is very beneficial when talking about schooling. I see this approach as a way to broaden one's horizons and learn diverse topics. People should not be able to choose their own course of learning like this.

Also, computers are revolutionizing how we measure what people know. With the variety of different standardized tests that are being used on the computer, there are more and more people are being tested this way. The book argues that computers will capture the kind of knowledge and skills required for learning in the professions. Students will be able to create a portfolio of assessments to be used for employment or college applications. I still believe that this is no way to educate citizens. If this approach was taken, it should be during or after college. It should not be so heavily focused on people choosing what they learn when they are so young. My theory is that they will change their minds often because they are immature and have to take many different courses over the years which will just set them back with their personal education. Although students will be encouraged to stay with a particular curriculum for a long time, I just do not think this is realistic.

Exit Slip 3/29

6 major ways that technology is included- Accreditation, Epistemic frames, topics in schools that teachers have trouble teaching, commercial video games, course management systems, technology as an equalizer

Contemporary Issues:
Using calculators in class=practicing tedious computations can potentially decrease attention spans. Students should know how to use the calculator for reinforcement purposes but should also know how to how to compute equations themselves. A lot of students have become dependent on calculators to do quick math. I think that students should have calculator skills to use as a backup to check their math after solving the equations.

IPad= touch screen product that is very similar to the iPhone, can be integrated into curriculum because it is relatively affordable.

Teachers with social networking websites= Teachers are still humans with lives outside of school. There is most definitely pictures and information that should not be posted on these websites because teachers are public employees. Teachers need to be careful because others are able to look at their pages and judge them.

Cool tools=
Kadoo.com= file sharing website, can upload pictures, only your friends can see your pictures but you can only upload one at a time
Woome=this is a dating website so it is not good to use in your classroom
oovoo.com= a website that is kind of like skype (can video chat, add a status, and communicate)

We also went over the directions for editing scratch as well as discussed our inquiry question project.

Exit Slip 3/22

How can we individualize education within the classroom?
Teachers can individualize education in the classroom by adding interests of students to the curriculum each day. This will bring in different aspects to the classroom as well as have more students that are interested in the topics that are being taught. The assignment can be the same that the teacher gives to everyone, but the topics for this assignment can be different so students can work on something to their liking. One idea is to set half of the day to learning things that everyone is required to learn. The other half of the day can be set up for more individualized learning.

We have learned a little bit of information about sexting, cyberbullying and consequences following sending minors inappropriate photos through cell phones from the contemporary issues presentations. Also, there was one presentation about music education in the classroom.
During the cool tools presentations, we learned about jog the web, wordle, and livemocha, and, wiziq.

We also learned more information about how to use scratch. It seems like it is going to be a project that needs a lot of time devoted to it.

Chapter 7 Reflection

This revolution in education brings both gains and losses to modern society. Pessimists see people becoming subservient to their technologies and many people being left behind as technology comes to dominate our lives. Some optimists see a golden age of learning opening before us, in which people will be able to find resources to pursue any education they may want.

What may be lost: Cohesion may be lost as parents and individuals take over their own responsibility for learning. This creates fracturing of smaller groups. Modern media has a strong homogenizing effect on the population, which ensures a common culture without depending on schools to produce one. A serious issue that a diminution of the role of public school portends is the problem of equity of access to learning. If different groups take over the education of their children, then many poor and minority children are likely to suffer. Many parents are spending a lot of money on preparing their children to be highly educated. Specialized tutoring, private schools, and computer-based resources are all examples of this. People will most likely become more isolated sitting at home in front of their computers and interacting less with people socially when technology comes into play.

What may be gained: Education will potentially be directed more toward what people want to learn. This will make people more excited to learn. Parents who homeschool their child will be able to pursue topics their child is interested in. Companies are starting new approaches to education that appeal more toward people. Computers can customize education to the particular needs and abilities of individual learners. Technology can make it possible to access information at anytime, anywhere. Turning education to the responsibility of the parents or individual leaves the family in charge of learning. Parents can provide the level of attention that their child needs.

As a future teacher, I will acknowledge and use technology in my classroom and try to make learning more individualized with this process. Students will be able to choose some of their own interests and have their learning based around this. This will be a very new adaptation to teaching and learning in the classroom.

3/15 Exit Slip

Chapter 6 presentation: Customization in schools relates to students because some take their own path. The book states that students often reject what is expected of them in school and this is not true. Some students take the path less traveled but some continue with what is supposed to happen in school. Pedagogy is when adults show children how to do something and children follow their lead. Adults scaffold until children know how to do the skill by themselves. Assessment moved from observation to standardized assessment to embedded assessment. Where students are physically, effects their learning style.
We also learned about some cool technology tools including: parentella, slide rocket, dweeber, and flaunteR. We learned more about Scratch during this class as well and it helped for the beginning of our project.

Chapter 6 Reflection

Throughout the history of education there have many changes including the location of where learning occurred, the culture in which learning occurred, and the relationships between teachers and learners. The state has taken over responsibility of education from the parents. Currently, responsibility for education is shifting away from the state and back to the parents or individual. Today, it is almost impossible to teach students everything they need to know as adults. Learning how to learn and learning useful resources are becoming the most important goals in education. Education is moving to many different venues where learning materials can be accessed from computer or the web. This is also called just-in-time learning where people can learn something anytime and anywhere. Technology is playing a huge role in this phase as students are building relationships with teachers through the internet. Online relationships allow teachers to focus more on feedback concerning learning process and outcomes. As a future teacher, I might be using a virtual school system and will have to be aware of how to form relationships with students through the internet. This is the beginning of a whole new era of schooling and it will be very different from anything we have ever experienced.

3/1 Exit Slip

Today we listened to the presentation on Chapter 5. I learned a lot of information about the pros and cons about home schooling, distance education and t.v./video education. Lifelong learning is imperative for success to be a contributing citizen. We need to have access to information and how to make sense of information. Teachers should set the ground for the ability to be a lifelong learner to young students. We went to k12.com to view some online interactive games and lessons for children. This is a virtual elementary school provider. This kind of instruction is something that homeschool students would probably experience. We also learned about many different topics through the contemporary issues presentations. There were a lot of new websites that classmates went over that were from the cool tools presentations. I also learned that I still need to create my Wetpaint page and add my technology inquiry question!