Response to Alan November Article

In the beginning of the article, the dad talks about being a paper guy. I would have to agree with him. I do love technology and use it daily, but there is still something about having a hard copy of something in front of me. Many people have Nooks or Kindles, and I just could not use one of those devices; I enjoy holding a book. Plus, I already have bad eyes and stare at a screen for enough hours a day, that I do not need to add another screen into the mix. Going back to the article, though. I don't know if I would have looked on the Internet as a parent for ways to improve the race car. I would have followed the instructions and then try to come up with my own ways with my child on how to improve it. It would be more beneficial for my kid that way, then jumping onto Google and doing a quick search.

I do think it is very important that students have technology and know how to use it correctly. The example of the boy not believing in the Holocaust shocks me. How could you not believe it?! Just because the Internet says it does not exist, does not mean that it doesn't. The boy should have heard about the Holocaust at some point in his life. The fact that he didn't know how to tell if the site was credible or not is besides the point; he should have known that it did exist from a history class. With that said though, I think that a technology class should be required of all students. They should have one in elementary school, middle school and at least one or more classes in high school. For high school, it should be a graduation requirement. For the students who go onto college, they cannot make a mistake like that boy did in the example. Students do need to know about the dangers of the Internet, from blasphemous websites to protecting their privacy. In this digital age, simple skills like this are needed just to survive.

I do not know how I feel about live video cameras in the classroom. As a plus, it does force teachers to constantly reevaluate themselves. I think though that this technology could get out of control with parents. I feel that if parents could watch the class, they will complain too much about the teacher. Ms. Johnson doesn't pick my son enough. Ms. Johnson was mean to Stacy. Ms. Johnson doesn't know what she is doing. These are just some things that parents could say about the teacher. Parents want to believe that their child is the best and brightest, so they could take these biases out on the teacher. I see more problems right now then benefits. I think that what Iowa is doing is weird as well. These technology either needs to go or it needs to be improved first.

The fifth section has a lot of interesting points, but one of the most interesting ones was that if we gave technology to all students, then we are increasing the achievement gap between the rich and the poor. This may sound harsh, but the poor do not have the resources to take care of the technology like the rich do. If they were given a laptop, would they even have Internet access at home? Most likely, the rich are involved with their child's schoolwork. If a rich student doesn't know how to do something, a parent would be able to help them. I doubt that the same could be said for the poor. Poor parents might not have had enough schooling to help their child out. These are just generalizations though. Who knows, maybe the opposite could be true. Maybe technology could actually close this achievement gap.

In the end, I think that collegiality is extremely important. Teachers should work with each other to help improve each other and how to help their students. These teacher-teacher relationships should not just be within their own department; teachers should work with teachers in other disciplines to see if there could be any crossover in order to reinforce material for the students. I also think that idea that students should go to teachers to technology seminars is important. I think a lot of teachers, especially older ones are stuck in their ways. They may go to the seminar, but not add in the technology they learned about. If students are there, they can give their feedback to the teacher. They can help them decide if what they were taught would be worthwhile to introduce into the classroom. If the teacher didn't like the technology, but the students did, it would put pressure onto the teacher to use the technology. Overall, I think that technology should be used in the classroom, but there should be some caution with it. It should not cause more harm than good.

Today is my first day of TCPCG and I am currently in my technology class learning how to use my Mac and how to integrate technology into the classroom. My Mac still scares me a bit, but I'm learning. We've done a Powerpoint presentation on technology standards, have set up wikis and of course this blog. So far so good.