It was great to meet all of you today. I am looking forward to the semester and hope you will find it productive and meaningful.
As an extension for our class, I have one additional video for you to watch. You will find it very similar to the one we watched in class today with some additional information. It is only a few minutes long. The video is located on a website called Teacher Tube (
http://www.teachertube.com/). While I have the direct link for the video, please feel free to look around the site - it contains all kinds of videos created by teachers with quite a wide range of topics.
Begin by viewing the video. You can view it directly from this blog or accessing from the website:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=40c570a322f1b0b65909
16 comments:
Mike Jacobs
So i watched this video and torn between viewpoints and ideas. On the one hand i love the concept of podcasting classes and lesson. It makes it so that if a student misses a class you can easily get them the lesson at home and your teaching them the same way you taught the class. It also makes it so that a student could never say i forgot. With the podcast if there was any unclarity during homework they could refer to the video or audio podcast.
At the same time I realize that not everyone has an ipod. But i would argue that most have a computer and you can use itunes without an ipod. Then you will probably argue that some don't have computers. To that i argue that i am still teaching the class at its regular time and place. The podcast would be, essentially, an assisting factor for after school. Does that give some kids an advantage? It may but i am willing to offer after school help just as much as I'm willing to post the podcast. I figure that any help is simply that, help.
As far as the cellphones are concerned i will never advocate the use of cellphones in class. It's fantastic that my phone gets internet, plays mp3, and has a full QWERTY keyboard but that has no place in the classroom.
I'm not sure where I stand either. There will always be the disadvantaged kids who won't have the very best of technology, but that doesn't mean we should go to the "lowest common denominator"--and I use that very loosely.
If it would help reach some kids, then we should recognize technology as one of a teacher's tools, and treat it accordingly. We have the right and the responsibility to ''reach'' students in any possible way.
It does seem very weird, though, to advocate technology for its own sake (I feel the video has a tendency to do that). It's not really do you use the technology; it's how you use the technology. Kids should stay connected outside of virtual world of video games and the internet, and it's hard to do that when you feature it in class as well as the time families are featuring it at home--it's a matter of health as well as learning style.
Kids need to feel and understand that they are part of something bigger, with connections and relationships in the real world, and I'm not sure it can be done in the same depth via email and text messages . . . Kids today need sensory experiences-something they can have, something they can actually touch-beyond a keyboard and dialing numbers on a cell phone.
I guess it goes back to the issue of how you use the technology, not the issue of do you use it or not.
Megan
I have to say agree with the two previous bloggers! I absolutely agree that technology should be introduced and implemented in the classroom since many kids use it and will use anyway. However, some of the ideas seemed a little extreme for me. I am not sure I could trust all of my students with the freedom of using their cell phone and ipod for strictly school activities. I would be worried they may be texting other friends or simply listening to music instead of concentrating on the lesson. However, when it comes to using the internet for research or communicating with people across the world I am a strong advocate. I also believe in using technology for making lectures more engaging such as smart board and powerpoint, etc. It is not merely using technology just to use it, it is using it for a more effective and engaging lesson.
Laurie
Technology is powerful and should be implemented in the classroom, but in limited amounts. I believe all students should have daily access to computers in school, but I am a little leary about the ipods and cell phones. I agree with the other bloggers, I am not sure cell phones and students would be a good mix in the classroom. I would also add that not all students have access to ipods and cell phones which would be unfair. I used technology in the classroom today and blew the fuse 5 times. Finally we had to cut off the fans and overhead projector to use the smart board and computer. If your buildings are not set up for technology, it doesn't do a lot of good.
The video almost sounded like a commercial for Bill Gates!
Ashley Ingle
As for technology, if it enhances learning or engages the students or makes learning more interesting, use it! I feel kids are growing up in an age of immediate access to any information in any part of the world. To be effective educators, we have to keep up and know what's going on in their lives/world.
I agree with Mike about the pod casting as a great tool for revisiting the lesson, but not as as substitute for the real, live interaction. And cell phones in class, heck no! It's hard enough to keep tabs on what they are doing on the computers and laptops.
I know not all kids have access to technology, but that's why we have to have multiple approaches. For the kids that do, let them use it to help them, for those that don't, find other engaging ways! :o)
Technology is being used everywhere these days. I definately think there should be a limit to it though in a classroom. It is important that children learn how to use technology devices such as computers, but they should not be using cell phones, ipods, etc in the classroom. Some teachers may trust their students to use it for school related materials, but most likely they will also be texting or playing games on their cell phones. Using technology to make class lectures more exciting should definately be encouraged! Smart boards are a great way for students to become involved in the lessons and have more fun than a teacher just lecturing.
Casey
After watching this video I am feeling a bit behind on my technology skills. I think that parts of this video were a bit advanced for the majority of our society. I completely agree that technology should be included in the classroom, but to a certain degree. I am aware that most children do not have access to a computer, or maybe just not their own personal one. Schools and teachers should provide students if they may need one. If a teacher is having an instructional class on technology then everyone student should be able to use a computer, simply so they are aware of up to date technology. Some students do not use a computer on a regular basis. Therefore we should integrate this part of technology as much as possible. Cell phones should not be used in schools by students. If a student has a personal issue, then the nurse or the office secretary has a phone that they may use. I am completely against students using cell phones in school no matter what the age. It is a distraction to not only the student using it, but students around them.
Susan Smith
My thoughts seem to mirror the thoughts left on the blog by some of the other students. I love technology and all the different ways I may be connected with the world and I am one of those people with an i-pod forever on my person. I am torn, however, with utilizing such technology in the classroom. I definitely think that teachers should utilize the internet to access the boundless types of information available for their lessons, but requiring students to utilize this information becomes problemmatic.
While blocking, my mentor teacher and I took children into the computer lab to work on games relating to the continents and oceans. I realized that these children were not as technologically advanced as the two video clips explained. Reflecting on this experience adds to my hesitation to utilize some technology in the classroom because I wonder if these students would simply be left behind. For example, some of them had never seen a website address and had no idea how to even enter it into the browser. Such students had great difficulty even getting the games to load.
I think that teachers walk a fine line between making lessons engaging and relevent and utlizing tools that leave out students who are not as technically advanced as others. On the other hand, I love the idea of utilizing a website from which students may access missed assignments and parents may keep up with the types of information their child is learning. i guess my main problem is with the degree to which a teacher relies on technology to reach his/her students. The fact that I love technology does not mean that it would be a success with ALL my students.
That last post was left by me: Elizabeth Webb
sorry!
Daniel Carter
I have to say that I am at a bit of a disadvantage here. I didn’t know that there would be a video to watch – I have a dial-up connection here at home and watching a video is quite impossible. I will know next time to do this at the college. But if it is mostly like the one we watched in class then I feel I can make a comment.
I am in awe of technology. I feel it has the possibility to make the world a better place and our lives much easier. As teachers this is especially true. To be able to give information to students at the touch of a button and to be able to assemble presentations in ways that are easier for students to absorb is a great tool.
The technology we are talking about though is a double edged sword that can cut to the bone!
It is my opinion that this technology in the hands of the students is going to end up as more of a hindrance than a help. Students are getting so distracted by all of the technology – the cell phones, the i-pods, the video games, the chat rooms, the on-line videos, etc..etc… and there’s no way possible to manage it. Students are sitting in our classrooms not listening to us because we, and our boring subjects, are just standing in the way of their cell phones, the i-pods, the video games, the chat rooms, the on-line videos, etc..etc…
I also think that students should be learning about this technology so that they are aware of more than just the stuff they and their friends are using.
I just think it is going to be very difficult to balance the two.
Daniel Carter
Something I forgot to comment on:
In the last 5-10 years that I have been "web-wise" I have seen a gradule change in the information available on the web. When you go to google or yahoo or whatever, and search for information, the results are different than they used to be. It used to be that the results would be almost stricly related to what you were looking for. Now you can't hardly find anything for all of the junk.
Even though there is much more and useful information available, there is also 10 times more junk that you have to sort through. And, if it keeps going at this rate, every search you preform is going to be fruitless and pointless.
Maybe it will get better, but I am pessimistic.
Joy Brown
I completely agree with the video. Technology is such a open door to students today whom spend so much time using it. As a blocking student, my mentor teacher uses the internet for maps and video clips. Her social studies class is faster paced and students today relate to that. As a future teacher I believe technology will be a very important part of the class room and the interest of students can be effected in a positive way because of it. I worry because me range of technology is not that broad. I need to learn and incorporate it into teaching the classroom. Great video clip!
Georgeanne Lavery
I have read some of the other responses and I agree with most of the points taken. We have all seem in our own classrooms the limitations and availability of some technology. The movie seems to speak to a younger generation of teachers who were also born with technology close at hand. I can remember when our family was the first to get a home computer in our neighborhood. The only font color was an obnoxious green. I relate this to my parents telling stories of who had the first TV in their neighborhood and my grandparents, who had the first indoor flushing toilet. All of these seemingly ‘new’ technologies at the time are now second nature. I believe the same is for the ipod and cell phones of today. I want to reach students with relation to their lives and technology is the way to go, but there will always be those students who don’t have the luxuries of the masses. At what point do they get left behind. I agree with Mike that you shouldn’t do some thing because others lack an ipod, but the extra lift those students are getting multiple exponentially with comparison of other students. I want to use technology, but I don’t want to leave others behind.
I think it is important to use technology in the classroom. I think it gets the students involved. I do not think it should be something that is used only if the students have it though. The ipod idea is a great idea but there are tons of students who do not have them. I think that if technology is to be used it needs to be used in the classroom and it needs to be something that is provided by the schools. I do not agree with using cell phones in class. The main reason being again many students do not have one. Furthermore, it is hard enough to get them to look at the overhead projector when they do not have any distractions. I think to add a cell phone in the mix would be very very dangerous.
Consuela
After watching the video there are some parts that I agree with and others that I don’t. I agree that technology (especially computers) is becoming a large part of both students and teacher’s lives and it open up information and doors for students. It makes getting information out to students and parents easy and applicable. Being able to send an email out to a class of students or parents at one time gives the teachers an opportunity to simple get out one message. The use of Smart Boards and Ipod cast are smart uses of the technology that can be used.
However I do not believe that although students may have computers in their homes Internet is few and far between for most of them. Teachers who relying solely on technology as their sole source of getting information out, I will say again, is extremely naïve if they want to get to as many parents as possible. I feel like we are in another arms race but instead it is a race to see who can force their students to rely on technology.
Nzingha
After watching this video there are some points that I agree and disagree with. I do believe that technology should be a part of the curriculum. Technology is becoming more of a reliable source, especially computers. But even computers, which you think everyone has access to, are still a luxury to others who do not have access to them. I think that technology that could be available to all students should be used, which would mean technology that schools can provide. As a teacher, it is important to be aware that not every student is going to have access to tools such as cell phones and ipods. It is unfair to make assignments or depend on these tools if their not available to everyone. I think that eventually things such as podcasting will be of a norm to classes but I don't believe that will be any time soon because although technology is steady changing, social class and economic status is not.
Teresa
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