Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?
Scott McLeod has a Ph.D and is the Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), and was a co-creator of the popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). McLeod is recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues.
I think Dr. McLeod's post is interesting and I agree will him on some parts. Dr. McLeod is all for the use of technology in classrooms. He uses sarcasm to get his point across. I to believe that technology can sometimes be dangerous. Technology has it's pro's and con's. He talks about how his students will be more prepared for the future, because they are doing all the positive things in technology and are not by fear. We need to prepare students and children for the future opportunities. All jobs now days require the use of technology. We do not need to shelter the children, but we do need to protect them to some extent. Some sites help the children become well rounded. We need to teach our children from a young age the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors on a computer. Parents and teachers do not need to teach technology with the outcomes of fear. We should use technology in a way that we don’t become dependent on it. Also, I agree that paper and pencil should not entirely be thrown away. These materials help our students with their handwriting abilities. Technology is not all bad.
http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/08/dont-teach-your-kids-this-stuff-please.html
The iSchool Initiative and ZeitgeistYoungMind's Entry
Travis Allen's The iSchool Initiative and ZeitgeistYoungMind's Entry is about embracing the digital life. Travis talks about revolutionizing the way of learning in schools. He presents a possible solution to our current education problems He talks of changing from basic book learning to mobile learning. The iSchool will be built on Apples popular iTouch platform. The iSchool has many apps for teachers to accomplish any curriculum. The iSchool allows access to apps such as, email, chemical touch, U.S constitution, world wiki, USA presidents, star walk, formuli, recorder, scientific calculator, notes, calendar, classics and iHomework.
Students are able to do homework, class assignments and access book materials all with iSchool. This form of learning saves the environment by not using paper, number 2 pencils and copier machines. It saves the schools at least 600 dollars worth per student.Teachers are able to store and track assignments. The teachers have instant access to school material at all times in the palm of their hand. The iSchool is only about 150 dollars per person. The iSchool prepares the students for the working environment and the future. The iTouch is already made an impact on the environment and this app will too. Therefore, I am all for using iSchool in my classroom. This will help me to interact with my students more and embrace higher learning skills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68KgAcx_9jU
Jennifer Chamber’s post and Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
It's amazing that 185 people that have never met actually performed a song together. Eric Whitacre had an amazing idea. With the use of internet and technology anything is possible to accomplish. No matter how far away people are from one another technology can pull us all together.
http://techliterateteacher.blogspot.com/2010/05/eric-whitakers-virtual-choir-lux.html
Teaching in the 21st Century by Kevin Robert's
I think Kevin Robert's believes teaching in the 21st century should be about risks. We need to rethink the tools we use to teach and the problems we ask students to answer. One phrase he said really caught my attention "Teachers are not the main source of knowledge, we are the filter." Students gain knowledge from anywhere now. Technology is expanding everyday and there are many apps that can be used to learn school materials online. Technology is good, but not always good. Teachers need to manage lap tops, cell phones and i pods just like paper and pencil. We as teachers need to let our students know about plagiarism, copyright, pirating, slander, crowd sourcing and confidentiality. Any lessons teachers create and no matter what tools are used should engage, be relevant, and challenging. When I become a teacher I will corporate some 21st century skills to help me teach my material and help the students learn about the technology. Most importantly we need to engage our students in what the future has to hold. Teaching will become stronger by using diverging tools and including technology.
http://www.edm310.com/Teaching21stCenturymed.m4v
Reading Rockets
There are various resources that can help me when I become a teacher. The one's that I found more interesting are read-alouds and phonics. Read-alouds help children become actively involved with asking and answering questions. It allows the children to make predictions rather than passively listening. These read-alouds are interactive or dialogic. The read-alouds result in gains in vocabulary, comprehension strategies, story schema, and concept development. Reading- aloud lets the students become the characters of the book. Phonics develop memory and attentional abilities for thinking about sequences of sounds and the language for discussing them. The children are challenged first to identify single sounds and then to identify each one of a sequence of sounds. By using this tool, I can help students grow stronger in their grammar.
Also, for children to attain more subject matter there are ways for us teachers to help. Teachers can provide retrieval practice for students. Games allow children to understand topics in a fun way. By giving teacher-prepared handouts prior to class lectures, the students are able to learn the subject beforehand. We need to teach students to be active readers. Breaking down the subject in steps can help students to grasp the concept better. As, teachers we should attain the information in our memory prior to teaching/learning. Help students develop cues when storing information. Furthermore, libraries have several resources that can help teachers and children to expand their knowledge. As a teacher, I will let my students go to the library more.
http://www.readingrockets.org/
I also think technology can be viewed as dangerous. I remember what Dr. Strange said in the class room the first week of school. He said that anything anyone does on a computer can somehow be viewed by others. Those others are classified as hackers that do get access to seeing other people's private information, which is unfair to me. I do like your idea that pen and paper should not be thrown out of the picture at all, because a lot of kids like that basic way of leaning.
ReplyDeleteFor Travis Allen's I pod invention, I like how he describes that it will save every student money. That money that is saved can be used for needs for all of the kids parents. The scary thing is that even though the price is viewed as lower, I guarantee the fact that still, not every parent will be able to spend that amount of money for the device.
For the device where 185 people are singing as a huge group like a unison sound, it is cool to me how this device is possible. A big thing to me that I worry about is that sound delay over the internet. It is not talked about in this site, yet I know there is a sound delay to the guy putting on the show. I guess he is the only guy who has to worry about the slight delay and teaches himself to get used to it.
For Kevin Roberts, I love the he mentions this fact, "Teachers need to manage lap tops, cell phones, and i pods, just like paper and pencil. That there points out a hidden view of technology's problems. I feel like it can be more basic for more people to understand. I like how you mentioned what the future holds is what we need to be teaching our students. It is ironic because for a lot of teachers, I do not feel like they apply this method for their teaching ways.
For the ways of teaching students for upcoming teachers, I do like the read-aloud method. like you already mentioned, it does get each student involved so it easier/faster for the teacher to see who gets it and who don't. That way, the teacher knows which students need more help and time to spend on. For teachers to put out actual fun learning games for students to play as a class is probably one of the smartest ways of teaching for younger classes. I totally agree that a kid's school library should hold a huge amount of information for ways of learning.
Hello Allison,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, you failed to grasp the true message of Dr. McLeod's post and if you'd payed attention to his background, which you included in your post, then you would have known that Dr. McLeod is actually a huge proponent of technology in the classroom. His post is heavily laced with sarcasm. He is actually making a point about how his students are doing all of those "positive" things with technology and they are going to be better prepared than the students who are taught by those who fear to use technology and only think of the "negative" things that can happen.
Also, you need to make the links into clickable links attached to words. You can do it, because I see it in your post. Just attach the links to relevant text in the post. It doesn't have to be the title of the video or webpage either.