Blog Post 3

Kelly Hines: "It's Not About the Technology"

Kelly Hines post “It’s Not About the Technology” explains what educators must do in order to improve the education system. I love how Kelly Hines points out that the way to change education is to change our mindsets. Teachers have to be willing to work to learn how to teach children effectively. I have had teachers who did not use much technology in the classroom, yet I never found their teaching style to be outdated. The teachers encouraged group discussions and debate in the classroom and encouraged us to use our minds. Our teachers were able to teach us valuable lessons by just using the chalk boards and the creativity of their minds. As Kelly Hines says in her post, you can be a 21st century teacher without the use of technology.

However, if a teacher decides to use technology as a way to teach in a classroom, the teacher should know how to use the technology correctly. I had a math teacher in the past who wanted to use smart boards to teach a lesson, but they had no idea how to operate the machine. The teacher then spent the rest of the class trying to figure out how to work the smart board instead of teaching the class the intended lesson for the day. The only thing our class learned that day was that the teacher should either stick to using the dry-erase board in the back of the classroom or take classes to learn how to operate the smart board. Technology should not just become a decoration in the classroom. If a school wants to put expensive technology into a classroom, the teacher should learn how to use the technology in order to make sure it is worth the expense.


Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
Karl Fisch has definitely taught me something with his post, and it is that I should never be proud to say that I do not know how to work a computer. As a future teacher, it is my job to teach things that will be important and beneficial for the students to learn. Technology is a growing part of our world, which is why it is vital to teach students how to use it properly. In order to teach these students, I must know how to use technology myself. This is one of the many reasons that I am glad to be taking EDM 310 this semester. This class has already taught me so many things about technology and I know that I have so much more left to learn. The important thing is that I am making the effort to learn how to use technology.

Karl Fisch's post makes me think about how many schools will not hire new teachers if they are not technologically literate. Even though that adds extra pressure to future educators, I think it is a necessary requirement that deserves to be enforced. As an employer, you would not want to hire a math teacher who says "I'm not very good at math." You want a teacher to be able to teach what is currently vital to know, and in this day and age, technology definitely falls under that category.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count
As I watch the social media count grow higher and higher, I am almost at a loss for words. I always knew that our generation relied heavily on technology and social media, but it is shocking to see the statistics rapidly change right before your very own eyes! I look down the list of social media, and I realize that I myself rely on many of these sites and applications that are being calculated. This count helps further ingrain in my mind just how important technology has become in this century and why it is important for me to learn how to utilize these forms of technology in the classroom.

I realize that I have a lot to learn if I want to teach my students using technology. One thing I know is that I need to be a good role model for my students by using the social media sites properly. I have heard stories where teachers have posted heated complaints about students on facebook and they have gotten in trouble for their comments. As future educators, we need to realize that everything we put online can most likely be traced back to us, so it is important to be careful to watch what you say. I will make sure that I stay professional when I use sites such as twitter and facebook.


Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

In this video, Michael Wesch creates a survey on GoogleDocs for 200 college students to share their input on technology and the education system. This video gives the students the chance to voice exactly how they feel, and I was able to see that I agreed with many of the things the students were saying. One reoccurring theme that stands out is how much money is spent, and sometimes put to waste, on education. One male student holds up a sign that says he spends hundreds on books that he does not even open. I can relate to this because I have purchased books that are worth hundreds that I was required to open once or twice to complete an assignment. Many teachers insist that you need to buy these expensive textbooks, and then when you do you find out that you only open the book once during the entire semester. That hardly seems like it was worth the money to purchase the book in the first place. If teachers expect students to spend the money on the books, I think it is key to make sure that the students get enough use out of them.

It is up to the teachers to capture their student's attention while they are teaching, because it is obvious from this video that students get distracted very easily in the classroom. I noticed a trend of technology being abused in the classroom. Some people brought in laptops and worked on stuff that did not pertain to the class or surfed the web. Teachers should provide online resources for the students to browse and reference during their class if they bring in their laptops. I realize that not every student will use technology properly while in the classroom.



Peer Editing

I chose to review my classmate's blog publicly because he did not have many mistakes. If my classmate's post contained a lot of mistakes, I probably would have contacted him privately to provide my edits. I would not want to embarrass my classmate by providing a long list of corrections on his post for everyone to see.

Peer editing is an important way to help provide positive, constructive feedback on other student's work. It is important to point out what you like about a post and what could use improvement. We should also remember not to take someone's advice personally when they are critiquing our work. Sometimes we just need another set of eyes to point out the mistakes we might have missed on our own.