Thing 5: Point/Counter Point of Web 2.0
My mind is whirling - why is it that getting a 5:30 a.m. phone call about a school delay/cancellation makes me jump out of bed? My mind spins thinking about all the things I can accomplish because fate gave me an additional two hours in my day. I lay there trying to go back to sleep and all I could think about was Web 2.0, technology, archaic teachers, economically strapped parents/schools, my brain was up for the day so my body followed.
Point: In ‘A Day in the Life of Web 2.0’ it is genius that the teachers blog/post upcoming assignments and what they will cover for the week. Staff who teach the same or similar subjects can then either discuss doing combination assignments or to connect the student’s Health class with the PE class. English teachers know what each other will be doing so they can better share resources. Staff contact through blogs that the whole staff can read and respond to are probably more efficient than email.
Counter Point: There is always a kink in the chain. Archaic staff that will not change their ways, the old way was ‘good enough for me, it’s good enough for them’ attitude. “My day ends at 2:30”, “I have the lesson plans I have been using for 30 years, I’m not changing them”, or my favorite (and someone actually said this to me) “Technology is overrated”.
Point: The bottom of page 3 of “A Day in the Life of Web 2.0” it is stated…”Student B, is keying a text message from his school desk to his social studies class team. He briefly describes an idea for putting together a video as part of their current class project on rural cultures.” Students thinking ahead and working together on projects involving technology, wouldn’t that be great!
Counter Point: Seriously. Students with texting capabilities are not texting about school work, nor are they listening to what is happening at that moment in the classroom. I think the author of this article went just a little too far with this one. Has he ever been in a high school classroom?
Point: Web 2.0 in a nut shell is the transformation of the web. Web 2.0 is where anyone can be a reader and a writer. Post your thoughts, share your knowledge, garner information from your peers.
Counter Point: You can’t believe everything you read. Use discretion in what you put on the web and what you take from it.
About Me
- Sue
- My family is very important to me, we are very close. I am a little more than 'middle aged' and happily married for the last 30 years. We have 3 adult children who have all graduated from college. I am looking forward to the 'empty nest' even though I love all my children dearly.
ClusterMap
7 comments:
Unfortunately, those "archaic" staff that won't come along with us into the new century, are doing a great disservice to themselves as well as those they teach. Probably the only way to "bring them along" is to be a model and maybe, just maybe, they will see that it could make there life more interesting, if not easier.
I just finished all the presentations in Thing 5 and my mind was whirling, too. Good way to put it. There are so many possiblities. It's exciting.
LOL "technology is overrated." Someone probably said that about the chalkboard once upon a time.
Cell phones are like hammers. They can be used for good or evil purposes. It's too bad that so many students have ruined it for everyone by texting their friends inappropriately during school. Many schools have banned cell phones. Unfortunate, but I understand why it had to be done.
I can see what you mean about students and harnessing their desire to use technology. But how to we "police" that it is being used for the intended purpose? So we allow phones so that students can text their group members or share video clips for a project, no one teacher can check each student and their phone to see what they are really up to...
Also what about the child whose family can't afford a phone. Is technology going to create a greater divide between the haves and have-nots?
Okay, you folks have made my mind whirl with all your good points.
I am all for technology, but there is definitely discretion to be used. My biggest problem is how to use all this technology and not undermine the district rules and policies. I would love to use PDA's, cell texting, and such, but am afraid all my kids would be held for after school detention for using the devices. How can we allow for the use and try to control the misuse at the same time? I realize we need to "trust" our students someday, but how do we know when to trust? How do I know when to bend the rules for technology? My second point is about those archaic teachers. We have all had to be highly qualified. Will they add technology to this definition?? Will be have to become highly technified??
Technology moves so fast that my "mind is whirling" like JB said. I keep trying to come up with a "history repeats itself" parallel for the impact technology has made in the last 10-15 years, but nothing comes to mind. Industrialization, the space race, etc. all pale in comparison, but maybe that's because they were already happening when I came on the scene. The closest thing I can compare education and technology's influence is what has happened since the humane genome has been decoded. We can't keep up with the moral issues connected to what science/medicine can now do. But that won't stop it from happening! So what I see is that we have no choice but to embrace the positive and deal with the negative. The positive is that anything we can do to help our kids get a leg up on technology will help ensure their future and ultimately, ours, since our kids will be running the world before we know it. So I guess I need to keep that in mind.
One critical piece to this puzzle is teaching students the different uses of technology in personal vs. institutional life. I used to teach my 7th graders the difference between language used in the neighborhood and the language learned in school. I taught how writing a note to a friend is different than writing a letter to the school board. This is something we must address with technology. When I take my students to the computer lab and allow them to choose from an assortment of educational games sites, they always ask "Can't we go on youtube or Can't I check my email?" I did show my math students a very good video on youtube on "how to study for a math test" No one in the class had ever thought to look there for help with school work. So we looked up other videos on decimals, fractions and so on. Today's youth do not see the connection between the technology they use in their freetime and how it applies to education....I can only imagine what my students would do with cell phones in the classroom.
Post a Comment