Blog Post 4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please?
Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor in the Educational Administration Program at Iowa State University. He has received numerous National Awards for his leadership work in technology. On his site he is reaching out to parents to let them know, that all of the things that are listed are going to be a must for students in the future. There are more and more classes online. In order for students to keep up in the workplace, they will need to know and do social networking and collaboration with other employees. Most of the world is already on a computer 24-7. Wake up and realize technology is here to stay. My thought is if a student is going to use the computer in a bad way, they were probably going to do it on something else sooner or later anyways. The computer is like anything else it can be used for the good of learning or the bad that is in our society.

The iSchool Initiative
Watching this video for me was unreal. I think the idea of the iSchool was great. I think teachers should be able to Email their students. All of the different things on the itouch was amazing. I remember having to go to the bookshelf and get the Encyclopedia down to look up information on a president. Having all of these things in one device is unbelievable and wonderful.
I really think it would be good for the environment, but one thing I am not certain about is, how would it affect the students. Would there be a certain time students would attend school on the itouch? Most students are like my son and his friends, if they didn't have to go to school, they would play video games and watch television all day. For the most part though I think it is a good idea.
For the question Does Technology belong in our classroom, the answer is definitely yes?

Watch The Lost Generation
The technique in this presentation was great. I liked the way that the presentation went from negative back to positive. This presentation made me feel like that life is about how your attitude is. Everything negative could be made back in some sort of way positive. The message also made you think about things people say. You hear people say everyday if I only had won the Lottery or if I had a million dollars, I would be happy. I truly believe money can make your life easier and happier, but if it came down to money or family, I would choose family.
My dad use to tell us all the time when I was a kid, be happy for what you have, someone in the world would give anything to have what you do. I think one of the messages here is unless we choose to reverse something, then it's going to come out bad. In the statement "true happiness comes from within", I believe you can be at peace with yourself and have happiness, but we all need love, and in order for that happiness to come out and shine we must have empathy for our family and friends.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
This was amazing to think 185 people could make a choir and sing so good together and had never even met each other in person. This just goes to show the power of technology. Not to say about the time and money they saved in traveling or the problem of getting everyones schedule to meet each other. I really was amazed by the presentation.

Teaching in the 21st Century
What does to teach mean in the 21st century, is a question that until I took EDM310 and started going into the classrooms was very simple? Now, I feel like I am in the first grade again. Twenty-seven years ago if you wanted to know something you went to your teacher, parents, or your main source of knowledge, the World Book. Now you can get information anytime and anywhere on the internet.
Until taking EDM310, I had never blogged, been on facebook, been on twitter or anything else like this. I have been in college for four years and have never been scared of a class before. I will truly say, I was scared of this class.
I look at my daughter and my sixteen year old son and say to myself how did they learn so much about technology? All of my daughter's and son's friends know how to do just about anything on the computer, and have never been to college. Technology is great for collaborate use and I definitely think teachers are no longer the main source of technology.
With the internet students and teachers can make school more fun and I agree that engagement is a form of learning. Projects when I was in school was done on poster paper, now they are done on the computer. I know I must change and learn more and more technology to be a professional better teacher. As the presentation says, "Remember the big picture, to me it's the kids."