I am amazed and nervous about the class today. As much as technology might be scary, if someone is going to help my students learn, how can I not want to use it? I guess I think of technology as a method or a tool. Something in my brain box that I can pull out as necessary if I think it will help a situation. I hope that the rest of the class can think about it in the same fashion
I really enjoyed getting to test out video chatting in class today. I can definitely see how it could be useful, esp if you can get a chat going on with classes around the world. To give the subject of a textbook a face makes it more real to people, and just as Lauren did in her class, can make students place themselves in different situations and become aware of the larger world.
I am glad we will be getting to continue this class in the fall, as well as my technology cognate. As most people can tell by now, I am pro technology, mostly because I am pro learning. Just as people must have had doubts about books opposed to oral history, I imagine in the future, technology will be just as tied with education as the textbook is today, but hopefully a bit more exciting.
I completely agree with you. I understand the aversion some may have to technology in the class, but we need to embrace technology. In order to compete for jobs students need to have technological literacy, whether it is the basic internet, word processing, computer programming in c++.
ReplyDeleteYour posting is a reminder that we are still very much in a period of transition, with lots of questions being hashed out, or yet to even be formed, because of the changes that have taken place with regard to how we communicate, and how that will or won't be reflected in schools. This very morning, for example...
ReplyDeleteThey were actually talking about that on Fox 2 this morning as well. I guess one district decided on a blanked ban. I was glad to see that one of the hosts knew about stuff like was talked about in class, like homework reminders and virtual office hours. Of course that brings up a whole new issue of when should teachers be not available? Does it set expectations that like some employee of a company, a teacher should be available for your student 24/7?
ReplyDeleteI love living in interesting times.
I agree with you that if technology will help my students learn more effectively, then I am all for it. Whatever it takes to get kids to learn well. However, as incorporating new technology is still in the works, it is still unknown as to what role technology should play in the classroom, and to what extent. Studies have shown that the more people use technology, the more they are getting good at finding things, but what about retaining information? Or increasing students intelligence or growth of intellectual development? I think we have yet to discover just what benefits and consequences incorporating technology into the classroom really provides, and if one outweighs the other. I will be interested to see.
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