Chapter 1
The Read/Write Web
Reflection
The World Wide Web has opened up our world. We can travel, communicate, and Skype on a daily bases. We can be safe while driving, by utilizing voice activation systems. Our longevity has increased due to the medical advancements by the development of new technological devises. My job as an educator has been made a lot easier since we have Google, Study Island, Galileo, Renzuli, Discovery Education, YouTube, Power-point, and we must not forget Elmo. Elmo doesn’t only live on Sesame Street anymore! There are numerous other perks to this technological boom. I can remember back when a whole room held the computer hard drive while today the brains of the computer is small enough to be held in our hand. While technology is moving at warp speed it is difficult for us old farts to keep up… In fact, it is even difficult for the technology guru to keep up.
There lies my frustration…I can’t keep up… Just when I learn and master a new skill with technology, some genius creates something new… Or could this be a conspiracy? The technology staff wants to create job security! I don’t have the answer for that one…One might ponder, how will this affect society as a whole?
Will our society produce individuals that are anti-social (no face to face contact)? Will, we as educators be required to teach children how to communicate face to face? Will, we have social groups? I believe that we may have to pursue this new emerging curriculum.
The author implies that the students today are quite savvy with their technology skills. Of course, I became extremely curious about the skill level of my students. So, I created a Technology Survey for my sixth graders. My hypothesis is that they only play games, use technology for research, texting on the phone, and maybe a few e-mails. Next time, I will share my results…Can’t wait…
In closing, I am excited to learn something new that I can share with my students. I am committed to keeping my students safe, and creating lessons that will be thought provoking for my students and me. Signing off…. Till next time….
Cathy, your enthusiasm about the use of technology in the classroom leaps from your blog and is contagious. I really like your idea of having your students take a survey to get an idea of how technology "savvy" they are. I think I'll do the same, and am curious to hear your results. It would be interesting to compare findings if several sixth-grade teachers do a survey. The information could help us to make some determinations about what might be the most effective us of technology in the sixth grade, as well as figure out ways to enhance the scope of how they use technology in a way that benefits them academically as well as making them more ready for the workplace.
ReplyDeleteI also share your concerns about how to best keep our children safe, as well as wonder about the social impact on children who grow up doing so much communication via technology. We've already been made aware of some of the pitfalls the anonymity and/or insensitivity of the medium can have regarding cyber bullying, etc. And as for your concerns about the responsibility falling on schools to address this issue, I believe we've only seen the surface of this as we engage in student assemblies that address these issues and see a lot of our schools' time and energy resources go towards dealing with the fallout of cyber bullying of students, by students, in our schools. The good news is, society is aware of the problem and looking for ways to deal with it. The unknown is just how effective interventions will be and with technology changing constantly, what level of resources are going to be used to keep up with trends and how best to meet new challenges that arise from them. Personally, I like the fact that video conferencing is becoming more and more available. Perhaps this will take away some of the anonymity factor as well as enhance face-to-face communication skills as opposed to deteriorating them.
Nice job! I look forward to reading your future posts.
I like that you gave them a survey Cathy, and I would love to hear the results. One year ago, I created a blog in one of Keri's classes that asks students to comment on their Technology uses. I am going to use it this year in this class. I was not able to use it last year because of blocks. I am going to request that they unblock it and my Wiki, and if they won't, I will ask for permission to send a letter home and allow students to comment from home.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the majority of students playing games and texting. When I am here after school, I see all the aftercare kids playing games online. Students talk constantly about texting on their phones, playing XBox, and going on Facebook. I also know that they can email because many email me. When it comes to teaching them Microsoft Word and Excel, where they are saving to (folders), and other simple tasks, they are CLUELESS! They know how to use Word and PowerPoint, but they do not know many of the things they should be using. They space instead of choosing right align, and give up moving a picture because they do not know how to click on position. If things do not come easy to them, they abandon them. Instead of using columns, they hit enter at the end of every line- until I correct them- over and over again. So are they really tech saavy? I don't necessarily think so.