#4

Dr. Scott McLeod's Post
Dr. Mcleod is a professor Iowa State University in the Educational Administrative Program, and he encourages the use of technology as a style of leadership. His post Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? catches the contrast between the benefits and the risks of using technology inside the classrooms. The opposition is technology grants access to bad materials on the internet, and yes this is true, but there is also lots of good coming from the internet. To me it's just like when you go anywhere else in the real world, you pick and choose what you do. You don't have to go to the bad places in town just because they are there. It's same thing online. Also the way the world is shifting, it is potentially more dangerous to withhold technological education from your students. They will have no idea how to function in the world around them if they are never taught how to use it.




The iSchool Initiative 
     This student has found himself in the same position that other students across the United States are in. Their schools funding has dried up and now there are cuts being made, resources lost, and classroom sizes growing; however, Travis Allen (student) is aware of what's happening and is encouraging technology as the answer. He first shows the use of numerous applications on the iTouch and explains how each of them can be used int the classroom. Applications like the graphing calculator, formula plug ins, space walker, and also basic things like the email system are all on his list of resources.
      After explaining the uses of the application he puts a spin of practicality in his argument by revealing the benefits to the schools who would use this technological system. Allen examines the budgets that holds students in the schools today resides around $600, yet if this new technology is integrated into classrooms it would only cost around $150. These numbers are per student. Imagine how much the school could benefit from simply trying this out with a hundred students? I say it's worth a try.





The Lost Generation
     I'm not sure if the video is a program you simply plug things into, or if she designed it herself. Either way she had to write the speech so it could be read both backwards and forwards. It was pretty neat the way it scrolled, and her message was really powerful. As bleak as it sounds, this is the prediction of my generation. But as the girl explains, it doesn't have to be. The odds are stacked up against us and the problems we are dealing with are massive, but it doesn't mean we should give up. The second we start thinking we cannot make a difference is the second we have lost the power to make that difference.




Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
I have actually had a chance to meet Eric Whitacre in person. Like I said, both my parents are music teachers and both have performed woks by him. When I first saw the video a while ago I was amazed that this could even be possible, but that's how fast the world of technology is changing! It is amazing that we can have such a close interaction with people who are literally on the other side of world. These people used technology as an outlet to create, converge, and explore music in a whole new medium. I can only wonder where we'll be in the next few years.

What Does I Mean To Teach in the 21st Century?
    This video could also be named "A Guide for Teachers in Classrooms Today." I strongly agree with the points made in this video. To use technology, because the students already are, in a way that can be brought into the school systems. To use computers not as a source on entertainment, but as a way of engagement. I think that is the biggest disconnect. Teachers think technology is a toy and not always a resource. They look at the games and negative images associated with it, but they don't always see the potential behind a single iPod. One of the new iPods can do more things than we can imagine, but we won't harness that power until teachers look at it as a vessel rather than a game machine.
     To teach in todays world means to engage. To embrace the resources we have and explore how far they can help us grow. Not to accept everything we find using technology, but to use technology to examine and come to our own conclusions. We need to know how to use these computers, but still think critically about what we find. As teachers we are outdated if we are still trying to pump facts into their heads because they can find the facts out in a matter of seconds on their cell phones. Instead we should teach them how to examine the world and draw their own conclusions.