Digital Nation

The video 'Digital Nation' was one of the better documentaries that I have seen in quite a while. One of the more eye opening segments was definitely the one about Korea and the amount of time children spend playing games. I never knew that it got as bad as that honestly. Its really not that surprising considering how easy it is to access over there. Hopefully the US can learn from Korea and educate our children that technology is great and can be helpful but too much of anything is bad, no exceptions.

The story of how implementing technology into that inner city school was very inspiring and showed how technology can have very positive impacts on everyone involved when utilized correctly. That story will hopefully reach other school administrators and they will be able to collaborate with this and other schools about how to implement technology into their schools and hopefully have the same outcome.

I thought that one of the more interesting points made in the special was that while many people argue that we were are losing a lot as technology becomes a larger part of our life, the same thing happened with almost every other breakthrough. We lost memory with the development of the written word, we lost face to face human contact with the phone, etc. Like they said in the video, with every leap forward there are always a few steps back. As long as the leap is bigger than what we lose then we will be fine. I think that more the technology the better. Yes people will become 'addicted' or use the technology for bad, but that can be said about nearly everything. People abusing technology is no worse than people abusing anything else, it all just depends on the scope of the abuse.

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I can safely say that this has been one of the more influential education classes that i have taken thus far. The classes that I took in college were more about how to handle students or different protocols for different situations. We didn't have a class even close to like this where I went to school. I have enjoyed this class immensely especially for conveying to us that there are many different ways to engage our students, ways that they will actually enjoy and therefore learn better and faster from.

That said, what else could I want from this class? Basically just more of the same. I love coming to class and learning about new tools that I have never heard and what it could mean for a teacher and class. What I would love is more actual examples of how to utilize these tools and technologies in a lesson plan. I want to be able to not only include these tools but include them in a way that is both effective and efficient. I want the student to see the point of using this particular tool in this particular instance, and also how they can use it in future assignments.

Anything I want!!

Thinking back its actually pretty unreal the amount of tools and knowledge that we have been introduced to in this class. For me at least the vast majority of the topics we have talked about and the things we have been shown are all totally new. The best part is even after this class is over we have things like EdTechTalk, Classroom 2.0, etc. to tell us about any new pieces of technology that we could utilize in our lesson plans and in our personal lives.

My favorite tools thus far are the ones that the student can use to not only learn but to have fun while he or she is at it. Websites such as Quizlet and Illuminations are great examples. A student can use these either during class or in their own home (provided they have the appropriate technology there) to play educational games.

I look forward to learning different ways to integrate the technologies we are being introduced to into actual lesson plans. When I was in school (namely elementary and middle school, the grades I hope to one day teach) the most elaborate use of technology was using the overhead projector to do math problems so the whole class could see. We would watch the occasional movie but very rarely used a computer ourselves till high school, maybe late middle school. So I am interested to see how a teacher would use technology in a classroom of younger students.

TecnoFunHouse

In just four short weeks of class we've discussed many very useful and fun tools that can be easily integrated into our classrooms. One of my favorite that I haven't had much time to look through amazingly thoroughly has been Illuminations. It seems like a very easily navigable page for both teachers and students with sections for lesson plans, activities, as well as links to other educational resources. The site is geared towards students in grades kindergarten through high school with lessons and activities labeled as such. The site is (unfortunately) only for math but considering that math is one of the more difficult subjects to really engage students in it is great that this tool exists. The web links are also only for math related sites.

Here's a link! http://illuminations.nctm.org/