The edtechtalk.com session that I tuned into this week was on teachers who teach locally to recent disasters such as the BP spill and the recent tragedies in Japan.
Now, in regards to implementing the technology, I don't know if it has been my laptop, but on several different wifi locations including my home, I have trouble buffering either the k12conference or the edtech talk, making it tedious to mentally stay tuned in to the programming.
Don't get me wrong, I think this podcasting is great for interacting other teachers, but like most tech introduced in this class, the possibilities are endless. This could be a great way to do parent conferences are board meetings. This could be a great way to keep in touch with other teachers in a team. It could be great for out of class study groups. It could be great to have something that parents can tune into to see listen to how their students are learning in class.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
All teachers must provide equal access to the digital world to all learners.
For a simple sentence, it certainly is a loaded one. It comes off as an ultimatum when is starts with "All teachers". The implication is that all must provide equal access to the digital world or something negative will happen. This negative could be postured in terms of falling behind mainstream education. A synonymous statement would be "all teachers must provide math text books in order for math students to have access to learning outside the classroom".
The idea is a good one considering that technology continues to play greater roles in all walks of life, let alone education. As teachers, we are trying to best equip students to be masters of their own destinies, so the right thing to do is engage them in their most comfortable medium - technology.
The problem that I have with this statement is the idea that it is financially difficult to allow equal access to students unless limiting the access. Technology is hard to have available to all students and who know what they have available to them at home.
The idea is a good one considering that technology continues to play greater roles in all walks of life, let alone education. As teachers, we are trying to best equip students to be masters of their own destinies, so the right thing to do is engage them in their most comfortable medium - technology.
The problem that I have with this statement is the idea that it is financially difficult to allow equal access to students unless limiting the access. Technology is hard to have available to all students and who know what they have available to them at home.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Technology in the Classroom
In regards to incorporating technology in the classroom, I view it as being more necessary than some other elements. I'm only twenty-three years old so I grew up watching my friends playing Super Nintendo, watching my dad use flight simulators on his computer, and playing Number Munchers and Oregon Trail on school computers. All of these are pretty archaic now. I grew up being taught that cursive was the most important thing that I needed to be proficient at for high school, but they should have told me that typing was. I handwrote my papers until high school because I was a slow typist. I wasn't proficient at typing until the arrival of instant messaging on the computer. It wasn't the computer typing diagrams that they showed us at school. It was my need to communicate electronically with my peers and friends. Not a single paper in college was allowed to be handwritten. And that is technology in education at a basic level.
Beyond word processors, students are now involved with technology on a monumental scale. It has been so overwhelming that many educators are limiting the use of technology in the classroom. What educators need to realize is that technology is a medium for the current generation of students. It is what most are highly skilled with. They learn quickly with technological concepts. Cutting them off from this is in fact costing the attention and drive to learn of the students.
What I hope to gain out of this class is a way to use technology as an intricate tool for learning far beyond that of powerpoints, projectors, and T9 calculators that were used in my higher learning. I want to find ways to meet students half way becauseI know how fast a learner with technology I am, let alone the fact that technology is a huge part of our modern world. As teachers, we are agents of change. We are trying to give students an education that can take them places in their future. Technology will be an intricate part in the coming years and failing to incorporate it into the classroom is a failure to educate accordingly.
Beyond word processors, students are now involved with technology on a monumental scale. It has been so overwhelming that many educators are limiting the use of technology in the classroom. What educators need to realize is that technology is a medium for the current generation of students. It is what most are highly skilled with. They learn quickly with technological concepts. Cutting them off from this is in fact costing the attention and drive to learn of the students.
What I hope to gain out of this class is a way to use technology as an intricate tool for learning far beyond that of powerpoints, projectors, and T9 calculators that were used in my higher learning. I want to find ways to meet students half way becauseI know how fast a learner with technology I am, let alone the fact that technology is a huge part of our modern world. As teachers, we are agents of change. We are trying to give students an education that can take them places in their future. Technology will be an intricate part in the coming years and failing to incorporate it into the classroom is a failure to educate accordingly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)