Blog Post 3

A Vison of Students Today

This video was created by Michael Wesch and over 200 students from Kansas State University. You can find the link to it here.
Unfortunately, most of my college experience has been like the students in this video described. As I look back and ask myself the question, "What have I actually learned?", I'm troubled by my lack of knowledge. Now that I have gotten into my core studies it has gotten better, but in my general studies what I learned in class left me as soon as I was finished with the final exam.
From my collective college experience there have been many textbooks I haven't used and a lot of "burp back" education. Fortunately, I haven't had to take out student loans and have been blessed with a scholarship to pay for college. I think education needs to change and I hope and pray it does for future students.

It’s Not About the Technology

This is my response to a blog from Kelly Hines.

First of all, I’m not sure if this will be a popular response, but I agree with Ms. Hines for the most part. Don’t get me wrong I believe that technology is a very useful tool in education and one that should be taken advantage of. However, I do not believe that a teacher can be successful in a classroom with technology if he or she is not an effective teacher without the technology. She gives a list of four things teachers must do in order to impact their students.
Her first point is that teachers must be learners. This is simply saying that teachers must be dedicated to learning more and more about teaching everyday. Learning cannot end on graduation day in order to be an effective teacher. We must be constantly coming up with new methods in teaching. Saying that I believe that teachers should also be learners with technology and should be constantly learning how we can incorporate it in the classroom to help our students learn in creative ways.
Another one of her points is that technology is useless without good teaching. On this I completely agree. The teacher must already be a creative and innovative teacher who requires critical thinking in her classroom before technology is presented.
It is when teachers embrace Ms. Hines’ for points on teaching and then technology is presented that possibilities in the classroom become endless.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

This is my response to Karl Fisch's blog:

Mr. Fisch's post intimidated me at first, I mean it won the 2007 individual post of the year for edublog, so I knew it had to be good. I strongly believe that ALL teachers must be technologically literate. It is almost impossible for teachers not to be as many schools are incorporating teacher e-mails, websites, and online gradebooks. So beyond a doubt teachers should be literate in these areas, but I suggest it should go even further than that. None of my previous examples were dealing directly with using technology in the classroom. I believe teachers should be literate in this area as well. Let's face it we are living in a day where technology is a huge part of our world and also a very important part of almost any career requiring a college degree and a large chunk of careers not requiring a degree. If technology is such a huge part of the world today, just think about how big it will be by the time our future students graduate and enter the job field.
Saying that what do we do with the teachers who are presently not technologically literate. My opinion on this is not quite as extreme as Mr. Fisch's or Mr. Freedman's. I believe these teachers should be offered an opportunity to learn by being offered a class like EDM310 that would last a semester. After that the teacher should be given a term to incorporate what he or she has learned in the classroom. If after this time frame the teacher still has not become literate or if the teacher refuses to even try to become literate I feel they should be let go.
Learning how to use technology is not about giving someone a headache, it's about our future and more importantly the students we have the honor of teaching's future.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

I believe this count is an undeniable example about how technology is a huge part of our world. The fact of the matter is that the growth in technology is exponetial, this means that it will continue to grow at a bigger and bigger rate. If technology is such a relevant part to our lives today just imagine how relevant it will be years from now when our future students graduate. I think we need to use this amazing tool in our classrooms today.