Article reactions- post for March 5th

Adopt and Adapt

This article details how technological advances have and will help our public and private schools systems; only if we let them. It details old ways of doing things, compared to the new way of doing things. Obviously, the new advances are meant to make it easier on the student and the teacher, but also over a lot more advantages to the student. Instead of talking about the Revolutionary War, a teacher can show a digital movie about it. This example shows how education can be enhanced with the use of new technologies.

One aspect of the article that I can relate to was when they talked about the digital immigrants. They pretty much stated that public schools have always been scared of new technological advances. They have never truly adapted these qualities and because of this, the school system is falling behind the eight ball of technology. I went to High School eight years ago, and we hardly did any thing involving computers; except in my CAD classes. Today, its a whole new world, and these tools can help us further our students education; but only if we as educators adopt and adapt.

Synching up with the iKid

This article starts out going over something that has feared me since I decided to become a teacher; the students over-whelming knowledge of new technology and mine lack of knowledge on the subject. That's why I was excited about this class. I wanted to better my self when it comes to new technology uses. I do not want to feel like my kids are miles over my head. I at least want to be on a level playing Field. I have already gained a lot of useful knowledge in the class that I can use in my teachings, but I know by the time I start to teach, more technological advances will be out there. So for me, its constantly an uphill battle.

I want to use my students knowledge and understanding technology to help me to relate to them more. I want to be able to use certain tools within my classes, and not look like a smuck doing it. In the history department, I have had a lot of professors who are, how do I say, OLD! And it is always amusing to me when they show a video to the class because they struggle with the concept of a VCR or DVD player. Most are extremely smart people, but the new wave VCR's give the loads of struggles. When I start teaching, I don't want to be like some of my professors. I don't want to struggle with something that everyone should be able to pick up on just because I am unfamiliar with it. "The key to teaching is keeping kids involved," says Ryan Ritz."...They like everything being electronic -- it's speaking their language." These sentences from the article speak volumes of what I want to do in my teachings. I want to keep them involved, and using some new tools of technology will help me do that. I hope!

Chapter 4 reaction- Wikis

It's kind of ironic that I had to comment on this chapter when last week I saw a piece on one of the National nightly News about Wikipedia and the affects it has on colleges. In the piece, they mostly went over the negative aspects of the site. They focused on a History class and one professor. The main thing that they were negative about was using the site for research purposes. In history classes, you have to muttle through alot of research, and since wikiepdia is a major site, then it's not far fetched to believe that students use the site. The main thing is if the resources found on the site is accurate. The reporter went into the site itself and showed just how easy it was to change things. She actually added some useless information in place of some information that was accurate. The point was to show the negative aspect of the site.
But what they failed to show, at least I didn't see it because I was at work watching it, was that a few hours later, the stuff she added was probably erased. The book tells that there are plenty of editors out there that combs the wikiepedia website looking for garbage information. It goes on to say that within a few hours, most garbage entries are erased and the truthful things are put back in.
As a future teacher, I would like to use this tool in my classroom. But I realize that I will have to do a lot of research to make sure that the information the students may come across is accurate. Obviously, bad stuff is going to be put on it. But if you make your students aware of these negative things, then they might keep that in mind as they navigate through the website.

Digital Storytelling- Post for March 12th class

Digital Story telling was not as difficult as I first thought it would be. As I stated before, I'm not the most savvy when it comes to computers. But in fact, it was probably one of the easiest things to create. I found it as difficult as setting up a power point, which is not difficult at all. One thing that I did struggle with was the adding of music along with audio. I could never figure out how to add both. So I decided for the project to just add audio.
I did the digital storytelling project on my newborn son, Cannon. I decided to do it on something personal because for one thing we had a butt load of pictures; and the other was that I am still so happy and Getty about his birth that I just have to tell everyone about it. I can see where this would be an affective tool to use in the classroom. In any content, this could be useful. I can see how students would thrive at something like this by creative means. I would defiantly try to implement this in to my lessons as a teacher at least once a year.

Chapter reactions

Chapter 3

I have stated in my first chapter reactions that using new technologies affiliated with the Internet can be very useful and helpful in and with education. Blogs are just one of these technologies that are available for use in the classroom. To be honest, I think blogs can be very useful in the classroom. Blogs can give the students an opportunity to interact on a level that will increase their analytical and critical thinking and writing skills. A student can give their views and opinions on the text or article that is assigned. They can also have the opportunity to let their classmates respond to what they have written.

I also stated that I had my doubts about blogs as well. The book does explain the dangers when it comes to creating blogs. It talks about how people from the outside can get into the student's work and give them advice that may not be suitable for the direction of the class. But the danger that this chapter sort of touches on is the assessing of the blogs. The book states that the teacher does not have to grade each blog that each student post. I can see where this assignment can be seen as just an assignment where the students just want to get it over. But the point of these blogs are to open up new level of thinking and ideas. If the teacher treats this as just another assignment for the kids to do, then I fear that they won't get exactly what they need to get out of the blogs.

Chapter 5

In reading chapter 5, I had never heard of a RSS. I didn't know what it stood for and I didn't what kind of use it should have in the classroom. I have come to find out that RSS feeds can be very useful to anyone around that is an avid blogger. These can help you narrow down your search from blog to blog to save time and energy. One thing from the book that I truly liked was the fact that teachers can create an aggregator so they don't have to route through each student's blogs. Through the RSS feed, each student's blog can be fed through by posts. This seems to be a teacher's best friend. This can help save time for the teacher that can be spent on something else involving the classroom.

Even after reading the chapter all the way the through, I still was kind of confused on how a person could use RSS feeds outside of the education spectrum. But after I looked at the examples of RSS feed sites, it totally makes sense. A person could be sent weather feeds, airport delays, or any other feeds that affect the daily routine of life. This throws this useful technology right up there with the rest that we have discussed thus far in the class.