What it all means

This book has brought to life many topics and ideas of how and why the educational system should begin to change.  Chapter ten sums this up fairly well and helped me determine my goals for my future classroom.  I think it will be important to incorporate technology because it is becoming a way of life.  When my students enter the work force, they will be asked to collaborate with many others across the globe.  They need practice in school of how to work with others and what it is like to have their work reviewed by many others, besides just the teacher.  This is where technology, such as weblogs, can make this a possibility.  Students will also have to learn how to be critical thinkers when assessing articles or information because anyone can publish their thoughts online.  Building off this, students will need to be taught how to interact by responding to and discussing their ideas.  This makes me wonder if we should be teaching students how to type at a much younger age such as when they are first learning to write.  One day the only think they may have to actually write is their signature and I feel that we should be stressing typing more than writing.  Another reason why I think technology is important is because it will motivate and engage the students more.  One strategy that I am surely going to use is primary sources or having guest speakers come in.  This will give the students the opportunity to realize that there are other resources available to find reliable information and begin to build a network.

                As a future teacher, I will follow the five C’s mentioned in the chapter.  These include being a connector, creator, collaborator, coach, and change agent.  The first three C’s I feel are necessary to carry out because that is what I’m expecting my students to learn and do.  If I can’t follow through with these three components then my students will feel the same worthlessness about them.  I have to show why they are so important.  The coaching component I feel is the most important and really pertains to what my job truly means.  The concept of a teacher isn’t what it used to be, in that, they provide information to students.  Now teachers are more of a middle man and have to, not only, teach students skills, but also teach them how to find resources to discover new and valid information.  We are they to motivate and demonstrate, but not to give answers or facts.  The last component, change agent is necessary because the world we live in is constantly changing and so is our educational system.  We need to be open to new ideas and strategies.  For example, I feel that although schools are big on testing to get money from the government, teachers need to stand up for their beliefs against this.  Testing students may show if they know the information, but does prove if they actually know how to apply it.  As technology is advancing, applying our knowledge is becoming more important than ever before.

How schools can cope with the new technologies

The way our educational system assesses students is a topic that is under much debate, especially since technology is bringing in new ways or viewpoints on what assessing means.  One question raised is whether students should take exams when they feel ready based on their own interests.  Education is becoming a more individualized curriculum, in which, students can study their interest and become more specialized in their future career.  The dilemma with this is what about the student’s who don’t know what they want to be and can’t study a broad range of different topics/subjects.  Another dilemma is when the chapter mentioned how classes could be based on interests and not age.  Although, there are some pros to this, the one aspect that I was unsure about was having the older students teach or be the lead role in the projects.  This would be great for developing leadership skills and having a mentor, but what if that person isn’t a good role model and can’t help the students learn?  Will there education and learning be in jeopardy?  I do like how our educational system is moving towards problem-based approaches and completing projects that relate to real life and integrating in the basic subjects.  I think that if students can see a connection and now why the material they are learning is important, they will be more motivated to learn.  Another question I raised was that with these individualized, interest based classes will there become a greater need for more teachers who can educate on all these specific areas?  This could be a problem for many schools that already have financial troubles to pay for more teachers.

As a future teacher, the biggest adjustment I will have to make is how I teach my lessons.  With the students becoming more involved with technology, I will have to think of more creative ways to engage the students.  This is especially true for in the educational system because technology is offering customization, interaction, and learner control.  By not meeting the needs of each student, they will find different ways of learning the material or simply become less motivated to learn.  Since the educational system is still using the standard classroom and not creating classes based on interest, instead of age, we need to take into consideration the changes that are occurring.  As I said before about my support for using problem-based learning, I think students will have to learn this way because otherwise they will become bored since they can just look the information/facts up.  They need to see the connections and learn skills for in the future.  As for assessment, I want to move away from grading to prevent kids to just study for the test and redirect think time and effort studying to actually learning.  I also think that if I involve more hands on activities that are problem-based, it will be hard to grade the students when it is more of an observational assessment.

Screencast -- Parentella

For me creating the screencast took longer than completing the SWOT anaylsis.  It took several takes to conduct a screencast without many mistakes and creating a script that was more interactive with the site.  Besides that, I thought this project was much easier and less time consumering than some of the other ones completed. 

Creating and sharing a screencast with my peers impacts my future teaching because it is one way that I can share information.  It could have many purposes from communicating with others from a distance and still being able to see the same things, which helps so that we are on the same page or understanding as each other.  I think it could also be useful to teach students about particularly sites or conduct so students can watch if they missed class one day.

screencast link

Social Networks

The social web provides a great place for people to interact and communicate with one another.  This purpose allows people to share their ideas and thoughts, which can help solve problems.  As mentioned in previous chapters, many people are smarter than one person by themselves, because we can share and expand on each other’s knowledge.  In an educational setting, this is beneficial because students can use facebook or ning to discuss homework assignments or ask questions.   Part of me feels that a teacher could use any other form of technology, such as blogs to do this same task.  On the other hand, though, I feel that facebook may be more beneficial because everyone is familiar with it and therefore will be more motivated to use this in the class for various tasks/projects.  They will already have accounts set up and they won’t have to take up more time learning how to use a different site.  Since so many people have accounts, a neat idea would be to contact other people who specialize in certain topics.  This would not only bring in new information and motivate the students more, but can give the students another resource that they could use to find additional information.  This is particularly important in today’s classroom because teachers shouldn’t just have students memorize random facts that they won’t remember when they can always just look it up.  The chapter gave an example of how one classroom that used facebook, the classroom enrollment went up.  If I can motivate just one student to come to class because of this, it would be in my best interest to use facebook.    

                As a future teacher, the main reason I would like to use facebook in my classroom is not only for the fact that they can share information, but because it could create more of community.  The students can learn more about each other, their dislikes and interests.  They will become more respectful of each other by knowing this information and therefore will be more likely to work better with each other in the classroom.  They won’t be afraid to discuss possible solutions even if they may be wrong and express their creativity.  Using facebook for this purpose would have its perimeters, though.  I would have to teach students about cyber bullying and work with them to prevent any teasing from occurring.  It would provide a great opportunity to integrate this with a health lesson too.  I feel that it is also important to incorporate facebook in the classroom because they should be shown how they can use it to share information, instead of just talking with friends.  It could also be neat to involve parents and teach them how to check what their kids are doing and how to make sure they are safe. 

Exist Slip Week 9

I learned that there are many resources available to help me create an ideal classroom.  If I have the intiative I can find a way to receive new and updated technologies or other tools that could benefit the students.  Through our class discussion, I became more aware of my thoughts on competition and how I think, in moderation, competition is a positive thing.  I also thought about how much of a work load I should give my students.  I think it is important to keep my expectations high and push them so that they have to work outside of their comfort zone.

What may be lost and what may be gained

This chapter made me think about all the new dilemmas that will arise in education and society because of our technological advancement.  Its scary to think that in the future many children could be left behind because they can’t afford the technology or individualized education.  Not only is this one factor that could develop, but without our standard education system, it will become even more challenging for immigrates and minorities to become a part of our American culture.  Our educational system is a means for students to interact with others and learn about each other’s difference.  Without this, students will begin to become more and more socially incompetent.  The chapter mentioned how more kids may develop depression because they will begin to feel lonelier without as much interaction.  This is one topic that I am especially worried about because a child’s self-esteem and motivation is so crucial to their learning and simply living to their fullest.  I feel that this also may develop because as students begin to study only their topic of interest, many will disregard even learning about liberal arts.  This knowledge helps people become more aware of other cultures and helps us understand different viewpoints.  Becoming more whole people, we can work together more efficiently as a society, with this information. 

                As a future teacher, I do think we should make strides in helping everyone have some contact with technology.  The one laptop per child movement would be great because I see the importance of having laptops in the classroom.  I would love to have students write reflections about class, post assignments/projects, and begin typing as soon as possible.  This would be very challenging without computers in each classroom or trying to share them between hundreds of students.  I also think technology could be great, in that, it could remove the competition between students in the classroom.  I feel that if technology becomes even bigger, there will be less pressure put on teachers to record grades and spend more time teaching about the more important things happening in students’ lives.  Without the pressure on students as well, they won’t feel like it is a chore to learn and can find more joy in the education.  This is especially true because without the burden of grades, teachers can complete more projects and hands-on activities that allow the students to have more fun and learn while doing it.  Another positive in that the students will be more engaged and this influences the amount of behavioral issues that teachers have to waste time dealing with.   Students will be so excited to be at school that they won’t become bored and cause trouble allowing the teacher to spend more time with the students.

Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

There are many possibilities that podcasting, video, screencasting, and live streaming can have in a classroom.  One potential that I am particularly excited for is that these technologies can allow students to become teachers themselves.  I think it would be such a neat idea to have students post their own lessons on certain subjects on the web.  Having the students interact with this, they have to gain a deeper understanding of the lessons because in order to teach it, they need to know the topic forward and backwards.  Originally I thought about having the students in front of the class, but with podcast or video, they could complete this on their own and I would have more time to teach the class.  This ties into the idea of the radio for kids, by kids on podcasts.  Not only could my students create their own posts, they could use it to seek advice when they need extra assistance on school work.  I think this is great because I feel that sometimes students can teach students better than teachers could because they may have a better understanding of their thought process and can explain information in kid terms.  This would also be useful if the student is hesitant to ask the teacher and just needs someone else’s opinion or advice.  The other topic I liked about podcasts that the chapter mentioned was how politicians use it to gain votes.  This could be a great way for students to learn more about politics and become more involved in government. 

                As a future teacher, the main thing I took away from this chapter is that I need to practice this technology first, before I use it in my classroom.  I don’t have a real clear understanding of how to use podcasts and I need to become more active to learn all of the potentials it could have in a classroom.  This may be the case for podcasts, but I’m pretty familiar with YouTube.  I think this could be useful in lessons even though there is a lot of controversy over using it in school.  I feel that students are going to be exposed to it at home if they aren’t in school and I figure they mine as well learn proper ways of using it from reliable adults, instead of discovering it on their own.  Either of these technologies will allow students to become more interactive and communicate their ideas to millions of others.  It is essential to teach students how to use these new forms of communication because that may be the sole form in the future.  Newspaper and print sources are becoming scarcer as people just read information online.   Without teaching students places where they can find reliable information they will fall behind in the way of socialization.