Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

Scott McLeod is an associate professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is also the founder of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education. Dr. McLeod's post "Don't Teach Your Kids this Stuff. Please?" is a tongue-in-cheek way of making fun of the old-fashioned parents who think technology is a bad source of information for children. I thought McLeod's post was both humorous and entertaining, but it also proved a point of how technology is so important and advanced, and that if parents and educators do not expose the youth to it today, they will not be prepared and have a "leg up" in the future. I completely agree with his thoughts and views. When I do become a teacher, I have every intention to incorporate technology into my classroom in any and every way possible.

The iSchool Initiative

Travis Allen was a 17-year-old high school student who came up with the idea of the "iSchool Initiative" which was a proposal to change our schools into a complete mobile learning system. Amazing, right? I was so impressed by how in depth and though out this plan was, considering it was created by a high school student. Allen's proposal consists of a complete mobile learning education, in where students and teacher's would use the Apple iTouch in order to communicate, complete classwork, and keep up with assignments. Students could use apps an tools such as the scientific and graphing calculator, email, chemical touch, and the U.S. Constitution. This information would be right in the palm of the student's hand, and would also give parents an opportunity to keep track of their student's progress. The iSchool Initiative would decrease our carbon footprint completely. All books and assignments would be on the iTouch, eliminating the need for paper and pencil.

Although Allen's idea is brilliant and very earth-friendly, I believe it would take several years for schools to even think about incorporating the iSchool Initiative into the curriculum. It has so many advantages, however, there are many schools who have teachers that do not even use technology in their classrooms yet. It would be a huge step to convert every part of the school's curriculum into a hand held mobile device. There will always be people who think the traditional ways are what have worked for students thus far, and that those traditional methods should remain as the foundation of what education is built on. The iSchool Initiative is a great idea and maybe some years down the road, it will be used internationally in every school and be available to every student.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

WOW! After watching this video, I was stunned by the outcome. How could people who have never met or rehearsed together sing this beautiful song with such grace and harmony? The video was very moving and showed that the possibilities of technology were endless. Who would have ever thought to create a virtual choir? Obviously Eric Whitacre! I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and felt inspired to think outside the box when it comes to ways of using technology.

Teaching in the 21st Century

Kevin Roberts's video "Teaching in the 21st Century" is a compilation of many ideas and thoughts that express how technology is changing the way that students learn, and therefore changing the way that teachers should teach. Teacher's a no longer providing the "what," but are now being focused on providing the "how" when it comes to teaching students. Robert's suggests that students are capable of finding information anywhere on the internet, but he makes a point that this information is useless if a student does not know how to correctly use and interpret it. Teachers should encourage their students to CREATE. This most important when it comes to learning because it encompasses so many different skills that will be most useful to a student.

Roberts ideas and views were so accurate in describing how students should learn in this technology-driven world. There are so many resources and so much information available to students that teachers are no longer the go-to source for finding information. I believe that it is now up to the teacher to show students how to use these resources to their fullest potential. As a future educator, this video caused me to look at teaching in the 21st century in a whole new way. Throughout this course, I've learned so much about technology and how it should be incorporated in the classroom. However, this video really caused me to think of the skills that I will have to show my students in order for technology to be useful to them now and in the future. What good would all this technology and abundance of information be if our students did not know how to correctly apply it to their lives? That's what teachers should focus on, and as a result this will produce a more capable and better prepared generation of learners.