Blog Post 5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? by Dr. Scott McLeod

Dr. Scott McLeod is an associate professor at Iowa State University. I did enjoy reading his blog post Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?. Dr. McLeod's post was mildly sarcastic but indicated that teachers can use what ever teaching method that they would like, but a child who was taught by way of technology will excel while a student who was educated without technology will be at a future disadvantage. I agree and disagree with Dr. McLeod. Yes, technology is the future of America and a child must be educated on the skill that he or she will need to excel in the work force, but technology should be used sparingly in certain classes. I might stand alone in my opinion of education but technology must only be used when appropriate and not for the sake of totally consuming a student with technology. Classes should be offered with technology centered curriculum, and technology should be used in regular classrooms. I feel that the teacher should be able to decide on the amount of technology that he or she uses, but that teacher does not have the right to totally rob a student from technology if it would be beneficial in the classroom.

Travis Allen's Video's

I really enjoyed watching Travis Allen's two video's The ischool initiative and Travis Allen's ZeitgeistYoungMinds entry (Mobile Learning) iSchool Initiative. Both video's made some very valid points about the future of education. I was excited to see the potential of future education, and even more excited to know that this idea came form a 17 year old high school student. This is the dawn of a new era in the history of the world and I very easily foresee schools in the future eventually using this type of technology.

I do however see potential problems with incorporating this type of technology in the classroom. For one thing the method of education we are using now has been used for an extremely long time, and change very rarely comes easily or quickly. I will admit that schools are taking positive steps to incorporate technology in the classrooms, but I see it taking a few years before technology like this is used across the board. Attempts to incorporate technology such as the iPod touch has been attempted before and positives did result, but for the most part this type of technology has not been fully successful. That is not to say that it will not be successful in the future or that it is a bad idea, but rather an idea that will take a few years to be effective.

Jennifer Chamber’s post and Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir

Eric Witacre's Virtual Choir was an astonishing performance! I am currently employed as a music leader and it would come as no surprise to learn that I love music and very much appreciate this virtual choir's performance. I am aware of the benefits that technology provides for musicians, and I have nothing negative to say against the use of technology in music. I am a choir director at a church and could utilize this technology to record and layer myself on different instruments in order to create a sound track that my choir could sing along with. The only problem that I have with this technology is the price. The price is the only thing hindering me from taking full advantage of this new technology.

Teaching in the 21st Century by Kevin Roberts

The video Teaching in the 21st Century was a well thought out video that provided some solid ideas concerning the future of education. Kevin Roberts main idea about the future of education was to place more responsibility on the student and less on the teacher. By doing this Kevin says that teachers become the filter for an unlimited world of information. One thing is for absolute certain, the future will be technologically centered and schools must incorporate technology in the classroom. For a school system to restrict the teaching of technologically in the classroom would be criminal, because the school is to prepare the student for success in the work force. I agree with Kevin and Dr. Strange that "burp back" education is a failure in the school system, and it places far too much emphasis on the teachers responsibility and far less on the students responsibility for learning. I do agree with Kevin but I also view teachers as a little more than just filters. Filtering information is an important and difficult task, but I believe that certain teachers have the gift of teaching in a way that students can easily understand apart from self learning. I am in support of the student being responsible for his or her own learning but I support this ideology within reason. I feel that education is best implicated with a combination of: lecture, discussion, and technology. Each one of these aspects are important and no one should be used any more or less than the other. It does excite me to see how technology is enhancing the learning experience.

Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets is a great website not only for teachers but for: parents, teachers, principles, and other professionals. This website has multiple tools to aid in a child's learning experience. One of the tools that I could use from Reading Rocket is the Jigsaw tool which helps children with reading comprehension. With the Jigsaw strategy students are broken up into different groups and given readings that all apply to the same topic. The groups of students have different parts to one story and they try to put the story together after each group reads their assignment. Tools such as this make reading enjoyable, and I would have no problem incorporating this strategy in my classroom.

There are far more strategies than jigsaw reading comprehension. Reading Rocket supplies educators with multiple tools for success in their classrooms. Another strategy that I learned from this website is Reciprocal Teaching. The main aim of this strategy is for students to run their own discussion by taking turns leading the discussion. Not only does Reciprocal Teaching aid in text comprehension, but it helps young students apply the text in a discussion. This tactic is extremely beneficial in my opinion. I find that Reciprocal Teaching actually places more incentive for the student to understand what they read and how to convey the main points to their classmates. Reading Rocket seems to be a fantastic teaching tool, and I would have no problem using it in the future.