Blog Post #3

We had another wonderful week of learning about technology and how to incorporate it in the classroom.

A.  We began by reading some material and watching a video on peer editing.  When students are working in collaboration, they should feel free to offer advice to other students on their work.  I learned that there are three steps to peer editing.  First, you should always offer positive compliments on what you liked and what they did well.  Next, you should offer suggestions by giving them ideas on how they can make their writing better.  You can also give suggestions on their organization, their topic, and their details.  Lastly, you should give necessary corrections on spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.

Not only should you encourage students to do peer editing on assignments, but I also feel that teachers are obligated to edit other teachers where ever they see a problem or mistake.  Teachers, as well as vice-presidents, are not perfect!  We need to feel free to gently correct them, especially, before they send something out to the classroom parents.

B.  We also read an article called It’s Not about the Technology.  The author made some very interesting points.  My favorite point that she noted was that technology is useless without good teaching.  We need to keep up with the current trends, research and tools. We have to be able to learn and show the students how to use all of these new materials and tools in our classrooms.  Both the teacher and the student need to learn how to work smarter by using critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration.

After reading this article, it was clear to me that teachers today need to be more of a facilitator to their students.  We are not just to fill them up with information and instructions.  We also need to be able to figure things out with the students.  Technology is moving so fast that it is impossible for teachers to know everything.  The teacher just needs to be willing and try.

C.   We were then instructed to go to "Fischbowl", a 2007 award winning blog post by Karl Fisch.

The link is
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html

He made some really good points about teachers and technology.  First, no school should hire a teacher unless they have some basic level of technological capability.  The head teachers, the principals, and the school inspectors should all be held accountable if their teachers aren't technically literate.  Furthermore, schools and universities who are not preparing students to use technology should loose their license and be forced to give full refunds.

Basically, Karl Fisch summed it all up when he said

"If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write".  


This is definitely a bold statement, but if you really think about it.....he's right.  Technology is not going away, so if you can't beat them......join them!


D.  Probably my favorite assignment this week was viewing Gary Hayes Social Media Count.  It can be viewed at 
www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count


It is so amazing to watch how much technology and social media is being used as the seconds and minutes tick away.  I had no idea that the numbers were so large.  It really is kind of hard to wrap your mind around those kind of numbers.  


This counter shows the public that people today are definitely using the internet and doing a lot of social networking.  As teachers, we need to take advantage of these resources.  We need to realize that young people love spending time on these social networks and we need to find ways to use them to motivate and teach our students.


E.  Lastly, we watched a video called "A Vision of Students Today". 
 It can be viewed at
youtu.be/dGCJ46vyR9o


This was a very interesting video about modern college students and how they spend their time any given school day.  They can definitely multi-task and they spend a total of 9 1/2 hours on media, music, and cell phones each and every day.  Thats more time than they spend in class or studying.  Thats more time than they spend eating and thats more time than they spend working.  Its even more than the 7 hours they sleep at night.  


This is a new generation and the schools need to take another look at the education system.  We need to make our schools more in tune with the technical learners we have today.