Blog #3

A Vision of Students Today
I understand the point of the video, and yes there have been classes where I did not use the book, but I always felt like that was something I was just not doing. I guess if they started putting books on the internet for students to download, it would be okay as long as I could print them off. It may be better because I would only have to print what I am actually going to use or read. The university would still charge some sort of fee for printing or online books, so it wouldn’t save anyone money. I think that students learn better from interaction. Teaching lessons through videos like the ones we watch for this class may be more interesting to college students. Videos on psychology, education, etc. would help people understand stuff better than having to read everything.

It’s not about the Technology
I had a teacher in the 11th grade that had a SmartBoard in her room and it sat there hooked-up to her computer all year long. We still used the LCD projector that she had been using for years. She wasn’t old or anything, she just wasn’t used to board and had decided she didn’t want to learn anything about it. She was one of those teachers that had lesson plans for years that never changed and what she taught us all year had nothing to do with anything we were supposed to be learning. My senior year, I had another teacher that was into all kinds of different technology. She used ELMO, computers, remotes that we took quizzes on and everything. Her class was just way more fun.

This reading made me think of these two teachers. It’s not right for teachers to just be given all this equipment to use without any training. If teachers are not going to use the technology, it could be given to some teacher who would so that those students can benefit from it.

Is it Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
Karl Fisch says that the answer to this question is no, it is not okay. Not knowing how to use a computer nowadays is like not knowing how to read or write 30 years ago. This makes not knowing about technology sound horrible, and I feel like I do not know as much as I should. I hope that this class can help me with that.

The post also says that schools should find out how technology literate teachers are before they agree to hire them. I think that this a big statement, but the author feels strongly about this. I think that it may be hard to get some students attention without the use of technology, but I am not one of those students. I think that teachers can be effective in teaching other students like me without the use of technology, so I somewhat disagree.

Social Media Count
This counter was really interesting because it showed how much technology is really being used in the everyday world. I was amazed by how fast the numbers kept going up and up. It is so much going on and new things being made everyday. I wonder what that counter will look like a year or ten years from now.

This made me think that I need to get on my technology game because before long people are going to have to get a program or computer system to control everything. If I plan on being a teacher I need to be able teach others what to do.