Sunday, February 26, 2012

Blog Assignment 5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?
ban of all things dealing with technology
Dr. Scott McLeod works at the University of Kentucky, where he is an educator. In this post, he is very sarcastic and says that all aspects of the internet and technology, in general, are bad and will not benefit children. He later states that his children do use technology and everything it has to offer, and because of this, he says that his kids will be a "leg up" because they actually do use technology. So, the children that do use technology will have an even bigger advantage over the children that do not.

I really liked Dr. McLeod's post. He is trying to grab the attention of adults and show them just how important technology really is. Student's need to be exposed to all technology and everything there is to offer. I agree with Dr. McLeod in that technology is such a big part of our society today, and the kids who do not jump on the technology bandwagon are only going to suffer in their future careers.

Travis Allen: iSchool Initiative
Travis Allen is the founder and leader of iSchool Initiative. It consists of a team of 24 people in which they travel around to promote the use of mobile learning through the iTouch. Adopting this initiative would allow for education to be less expensive and more efficient. Students wouldn't have to purchase physical books, pencils, paper, etc. anymore because everything that they would need would be at the tip of their fingers with the iTouch.

Travis was only 17 when he made his first YouTube video, where he proposed the idea of the iSchool Initiative. I think this is a great idea. It would allow for students to be able to afford more, and the parents' of the students could keep up-to-date with their children more easily as well. We use so much technology everyday, so incorporating this into students' learnings would be wonderful.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
I thought this video was very powerful and really neat. It demonstrates just how much we can do with technology today. This choir consisted of 185 people from all around the world who had never met before, but still came together to perform a beautiful piece. Something as big and extravagant as this was able to come alive all because of the use of technology. I really like this use of the internet; it just shows that what we can do with the internet is endless.

Teaching in the 21st Century
Kevin Roberts' video describes where education is headed for the present and the future. He said that teachers are losing the importance that they use to have. They are now more of a filter for students because their students have so many more resources at their fingertips than ever before. Now, students can log onto Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Google and many more sites to get all of  the information they need and much more.

I like how Roberts thoroughly distinguished the differences between entertainment and engagement. He stated that people use entertainment to get their mind off of problems, while they use engagement to solve problems. Engagement should be fun and exciting; it makes for people to actually have to be involved and that is a great thing! I think that Roberts is point-on with his position on the changes in teaching. It will affect me as a teacher because I will have to stay very up-to-date with technology to be able to keep up with my students and to give them the best education opportunity that I possible can.

Reading Rockets
The Reading Rockets motto is: "teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle". It is a pretty amazing website dedicated to the success of children, regarding reading. It offers apps to help students who are struggling with comprehension, which is normal for children. It also offers effective ways to help students understand and care about what they are reading or have read. The site also gives information to get kids even more help, and also tells us reasons for why some students struggle with reading. A reason could be that they have received poor instructions on how to go about reading. If this (or something similar) is found to be the case early on, many times the problem can be resolved or even prevented.


This website will definitely be beneficial for me when I do become a teacher. Even though I am going to teach math, reading will still be a huge part. I will be able to find out how to teach my children with reading disabilities more effectively with this incredible site. It has a library that is there to provide teachers with strategies to accommodate their students in areas where they need help the most, and also how to use these strategies most efficiently. I really learned a lot from the Reading Rockets site!

2 comments:

  1. Thorough, thoughtful, well done! keep it up.

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  2. Hello Ariel,
    I really enjoyed your post. It was very well written. You done a really good job. I agree with you on the virtual choir. It was really neat to see how so many people who have never met, come together on the internet to form a choir and perform!

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