Technology & Application

My new class Emerging Technologies to this point has been a whirl wind. I want to take a few moments to reflect on what has happened since the beginning of this class to now. First and for most I absolutely love the gadgetry and exploring the infinite wealth of information that exists in Web 2.0. I have for too long been sitting on my haunches and using the Internet for shopping or just looking up information...not to say that that is bad, but in just a short time Dr. Z has introduced me to an abundant of cool interactive and productive ways to collaborate with colleagues.

I have already begun to use several technologies such as Google docs and Google sites to help with communication and collaboration with my colleagues at work. One of my goals for this class will be to learn how I can apply all this new information and technology in to my teaching. I would also like an area of our class project to reflect how we could create a learning community that will be able to help others like me. I just want to someone to show me how to do it and give me the resources to get the job done.

Dalton Sherman

If you haven't seen this You Tube video of Dalton Sherman's speech to a group of teachers in Dallas at a back to school in service you should. He talks about believing in all students. It's a cute video with big message!

Thoughts on class readings

This will be quick. I love reading Prenske. I think he is right on with where we need to go with embracing technology and making it work in schools. What I hate is that there is so much new stuff that he talks about that I stop reading and go play instead of concentrating on my reading. The other downfall is that it is time consuming, but I am finding it most worth while as I am already using texting as a way to communicate with one of classes and it has been quite effective. Could talk more but I gotta run.

Young Minds, Fast Times: The Twenty-First-Century Digital Learner

Once again Prensky is right on the money with this article. I am a big supporter/believer is giving the students some ownership in the education. Whether or not it is linked with using the latest or greatest technology that students relate to. The key is finding something that you can connect with students from their lives that they care about and they know you care about. For example, I find that just by playing music in class and letting students peruse through my ipod can be a way to connect. They get to see what kind of music I like and then we end up talking about it and I find out what they like. It's fun.

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants.

I found reading this article by Prensky thinking about my experience growing up with technology and how it was used. What I remember about computers was basically that I played Oregon Trail on them and loved it! My first video game was Atari and all through college the only use I had for a computer was to word process and I wasn't very good at that. But by the time I bought my first computer...Mac of course. I was hooked on wanting to learn more. My only problem with technology right now is that as much as I want to keep up with it I find it very time consuming to research and play with the new stuff out there.

I do feel that I kind of a tweener when it comes to digital natives and digital immigrants. I grew up with a little technology and I as I could afford it love buying the toys. I am probably more of an immigrant as I oftened am behind on whats the latest and greatest. Just in three short weeks I have learned a ton of stuff about some cool stuff on the internet.

Emerging thoughts about technology

I think the theme of this class should be change to "Doing common things in an uncommon way". I really felt that today's discussions really center around this theme. How can we teach something old in a new way by incorporating emerging technologies.