Blog Assignment 3

“A Vision of Students Today”- This video makes a statement about the fast-paced lives of today’s college students. The creator of the video seems to believe that traditional, lecture-style classes do not reach today’s students. Since there are a lot more tools available to professors today, why don’t they use them? Why are we still using chalkboards and taking notes when all of this can be done more effectively with laptops, projectors and smart boards? The possibilities are endless, but some professors aren’t interested in unleashing the power of these resources. This isn’t the case in all of my classrooms. Some teachers use powerpoint, but they stop there. I think that professors could make more of an effort to improve their lesson plans with technology.
I don’t completely agree with the message that this video is sending. One of the statements made by a student in this video is “I facebook through my classes.” Another students says “My neighbor paid to take this class, but never comes.” Is this the fault of the professor? I believe the answer is no. More blame should be placed upon the shoulders of lazy students. Not every subject has to be extremely exciting. We don’t pay to go to college so we can be entertained. We come here to learn. Although technology is a great tool, it is not the answer to all of the problems with the educational system today. Students need to be more dedicated to learning and less focused on amusing themselves.
“It’s Not About the Technology”- “Wait a minute. It’s not about the technology? Why am I in EDM 310? Why am posting this blog?” These are the thoughts that might go through the head of a student enrolled in EDM 310 when they first encounter this statement. This is the bold claim that Kelly Hines in her blog post. At first a person might disregard this statement as ridiculous, but when you read the rest of her post it all become clear. Ms. Hines is not against technology, but she is against teachers who misuse technology because they refuse to learn the proper way to use it. Ms. Hines also states that technology is not the most important thing for a teacher to use either. So what is important to Ms. Hines? In her post, she states four things that teacher’s should do to improve their own teaching style and our educational system as a whole. First, teachers must be willing to learn new ways to make their classroom more effective. Second, teachers must be willing to try new approaches to teaching if their usual methods aren’t working. Third, teachers need to learn how to use technology effectively. Fourth, making students technologically literate is useful, but not as important as teaching core subjects, creativity and study skills.
I enjoyed this post because Ms. Hines makes some insightful points which I myself have thought about before. How can I as a future teacher ask my students to embrace learning if I refuse to learn? Teachers must learn to practice what they preach. Secondly, in our current technology obsessed society it’s easy to get carried away. Contrary to proper belief, technology is not the most important that students need to learn about in school. However, when teachers do use technology they need to use it properly. An example of misuse of technology in the classroom involves my teachers in high school. Many of them had Smart Boards in their classrooms and only used them as projectors. This is pointless! So overall I think this post makes a great point.
“Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?”- Obviously the answer to this question is a resounding no. The author of this article challenges teachers to step up to the plate and stop thinking it is okay to ignore technology. I had a teacher in high school who did not even understand how to work the online grading program that our school district used. This is pathetic. So I can see the author’s point when he says that being technologically illiterate today is almost like being unable to read and write. Back when this teacher started his career, he had probably never seen a computer. Then thirty years later he is still teaching and everything had changed. He was completely out of the loop. This makes me wonder if there will be new technologies that I will totally refuse to learn about after I have been teaching for twenty or thirty years. I hope I will never get to that point.
The author does state that technology is not the answer to all of our problems. However, he also says that it is an extremely important tool which all teachers should make use of. I agree with pretty much everything in this article although it does make some extreme claims. Sometime you have to be extreme if you want to see change!
Social Media Count- The statistics shown here are astronomical, but not really surprising considering how many people there are in the world. I think this is just more proof that technology has become part of the fabric of our society. It cannot be ignored. That’s why teachers need to find a way to make use of the exponential growth of technology. If you ignore these statistics, then you are blind.