Blog Assignment 5

Scott McLeod - Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please?
In this post he tells all about how horrible the technology we use in schools are and asks that we not use them and then at the end he says that he himself is using it and to see which children have a leg up in the future. I think that he had a very interesting yet sarcastic way of going about telling parents and educators that there are ways for technology to be in schools without the students using them wrongly as long as they learn from an early age how to properly surf the web and use their other digital resources. I also think that there would be no comparison when it came to which children have a leg up in the future as this is the digital age.
It turns out that Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor at UK (University of Kentucky) and has received many awards for his work. He blogs regularly, is an idea generator and a CASTLE director. I find the quote on his home page to be quite interesting and very true to him: "If the leaders don't get it, it's not going to happen." So the leaders of our school need to get it so that his ideas can continue to happen.

The iSchool Initiative
     Travis Allen's argument is for making school completely green by getting rid of paper, pens/pencils, textbooks, and printers & ink. To do this it would replace all of those things with and iSchool on the iPod Touch. He tells about all the learning capable features that are already on the iPod and of how much money it will save everyone if they switch. Plus it will lower our Carbon Footprint and raise how green our society is.
     My reaction was one of wonder and surprise and fear all at the same time. The wonder is that schools really could go to be completely online and over iPods and the like without teachers and students ever meeting face to face. The surprise comes from how eager this young man sounds for it to be true. Though the fear comes from both of these things and the fact that if school goes this way then libraries are sure to be next, and since I am an avid reader I would hate for this to happen. I can't stand looking at my computer screen long enough to finish writing a paper so there is no way I would be able to stare at it to finish a book.

Jennifer Chambers & Erica Whitacre

Ms. Chambers found an amazing video of 185 voices all over the country singing one song together. It was a truly unforgettable sound that double in cool points once I found out that the people that made that soothing song had never once met in person! I think this is one of the best ways I have seen the internet used so far. I wish that those people would make more videos like that so that others would get inspired to do the same and then it would pretty much be perfect!

Teaching in the 21st Century
To Roberts teaching ultimately comes down to asking the question "what does it mean?". To him it doesn't matter the content, skills, or subject. You could be using Google, textbooks, or even just brainstorming ideas with a group or partner but Roberts will want to know what it means. What the meaning of a color is, what the meaning of being president is, or what the meaning of literature is. Like it says, no matter the content. And I think that is absolutely fabulous. I know that things will change for me as a future educator because it will no longer be knowledge getting crammed in one ear and spilling right back out of the other. The students will actually have to put in efforts on projects and assignments instead of throwing things together at the last minute since I will be using this way of always wanting to know what things mean.