Dr. McLeod makes some great agruments about maintaining a distance from technology although I don't agree with the majority of his agrument. Children of today need to learn not only how to work with new technologies and computers but also how to safely surf the web and protect themselves from all the predators that are out there. I do agree with his opinion about keeping the pen and paper present in the classrooms. Students need to learn how to communicate with their peers without using the computer they also need to learn how to think for themselves without allowing computers to do all the thinking for them.
Scott McLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky and also the founder of CASTLE which surprisingly is the nation’s only center that is directed at helping school administrators with current technology needs.
In Travis Allen's Utube video he talks about ischool. This is a very interesting approach on how to save money for our currently underfunded school systems. However, I would have to question how it would effect the teachers that might be replaced by this new technology. I know that teachers would still be required but would fewer teachers be needed? Also another argument I would have to say is that fewer and fewer of our children are already being affected by not having to talk with each other. they are not learning coping skills that would be required when they are older. In this case I would say technology might have gone one step to far. I understand that would save about $500 a student but what would really be the lost investement? The only way to truely know is to run trials cases at different levels in the different states to see if this new technology is truely beneficial.
The Virtual choir was awesome. As a life long choir member I thought it was amazing at how these people have never met face to face for a day of reherasal before recording this. I know that technology can really play a part of the recording of this however the video itself is amazing.
The last video of this assignment made me think really hard. How are we to teach if all the information is already out there. Here's the thing, it has always been out there just not always easily accessible. Robert says we are no longer the "teacher" but we are acting as a "filter". Which means we deteremine what information our students get to look up and research the internet for but only for school. In one of the slides he mentions who is to teach how to search the internet for the information. This is a very valid point. When I was in school we were taught how to reserach using books and enclyclopedias, now there is so much information out there we need to teach how to interpret all the data and make sure sources are reliable. While the information is ever present we must be able to teach how to use it correctly.
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week. You made some really good points in your post about the use of technology in the classroom. In your post about the iSchool Initiative, you mentioned that trials are needed to see if this approach to learning is worthwhile. You are right! In fact, Baldwin County High School has begun a pilot program this year. Their incoming freshmen were given MacBooks. All of the information needed to complete their assignments was loaded onto the laptops. They have no textbooks. It will be interesting to see the results of this program at the end of the school year.