Blog Assignment #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please?

I found this to be a very interesting post. I might be taking it the wrong way but I believe he is coming off sarcastic. I think that in this post he is trying to say that everything has its flaws but that doesn't mean that we should ban our students from it altogether. Why do I think this? In the end he makes the statement that he is doing it with his students. I don't see why he would sincerely be telling people not to use technology if he is establishing it with his students.
I do agree that there are things that are bad about technology but that is with anything these days. You can't just avoid something altogether because there are bad things that come with it. To not teach our students with technology would not help prepare them for a world that is dependent of technological advances. If I have interpreted his post wrong then I would say I disagree with what he said. Either way I stand by what I said about it.
Scott Mcleod is the director of CASTLE (Center for Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education). He is recognized as one of the leading academic experts on technology issues in schools.
iSchool Initiative

This video was amazing! If schools would go to using that as a learning/teaching device then so many funds would not be tied up and the schools would be able to go green. This device could be used to help students keep up with their work along with become more technologically-savvy. This could improve a teachers work load by being able to store documents and work all in an ischool and no longer have to keep up with so many papers. This could help schools get out of debt and not have to cut anymore budgets or people. They could take the extra money and invest it into the Arts program and other programs that are usually the first to be cut.
I wonder if schools will get this far though. I would love to see this happen but it will take a lot of effort to get everyone on the same page. Students would still come to school and be able to have social skills as well as be taught by a teacher, it will just be easier for them to do work and keep up with dates and events. The ischool is the future of schools and I can't wait to see if this really happens.
Lost Generation

At first I thought the video was kind of depressing but as it started to change I liked how they portrayed this message. I liked how they started it off negative like most experts and people say about this generation but then changed it to twist their words around into positive. This gives us hope that we can be the generation to fix this planet and to bring our country back to what it was.
This video really helped inspire me to not listen to what the earlier generation says about us but to do something about it. We need to tell ourselves that we can make a change and then in ten years we will look back at this and be glad that we didn't give in to what others said. I think the way this video was done really portrayed how this generation is not lost.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I have never seen anything like this before. To put all those people and voices together must have taken some work. I wonder if they all sang on their webcams at the same time or he pieced it all together? whatever he did, it was excellent and I was completely taken back by it. To think of something of that magnitude was just genius.
I love how he used technology to create something that extraordinary. It just proves that there is so much you can do with technology if you just will play around with it and see. This had to take some time and for him to do this, helps others know that we can also find new ways to incorporate technology into things. Almost anything we do today can be done with technology as well. I'm ready to see how I can use it to change things!
Teaching in the 21st Century

This video really made you think about all the aspects of teaching and how you can incorporate technology into the classroom. It also seemed to answer any question that popped in your head. This video portrayed that it will take a step to teach with technology but that it will be worth it in the end. It also showed the different aspects of how you can use technology in and outside the classroom. I liked how it made the point that we need to teach our students these skills because if we don't, who is?
I like the position the video took about teaching. It showed that their are many tools out now that can help better a child's education. It also showed that you can control these devices in the classroom the same way you control paper and pen. I thought that was awesome because the first thing people look at when incorporating technology is how they are going to control it. To teach in the 21st century literally means to adapt and show skills. Children can get information from just about anywhere now and teacher need to help show children how to come about this information.