Blog Assignment #3

A Vision of Students Today
I think that this video is a great example of the average college student. I think the part most relevant to my college experience was the point made about buying hundred dollar text books and never opening them. I have spent thousands on my text book during the time I have attended USA so far, and it is very rare that I open any of them. Another part that I found to be relevant to my experiences was the note about students paying for class, then not attending. I do not think that it is stressed enough to high school students about just how much freedom they will have when they enter college. It is so easy to miss classes, there is no one there to make you go. And even when you do miss multiple classes, you do not see the consequences until you fail the class. If I had to stress one thing about my college experience this would be it. It is so important to attend classes, I missed as many as I could my freshman year and five semesters later I am still working to pull my GPA up from that one semester. Another important fact that they included was that you have to be a multi-tasker. If you can not balance school, work, fun and all the other things that you may have going on during the semester then it is going to be really difficult. Your first semester your teachers will tell you to get a daily planner, and I agree completely, without one I would never remember to do everything that I am supposed to. I really enjoyed this video, I think that high school seniors should have to watch this before they make their decision about college majors. I do not want to discourage youth from pursuing a college education, I want to encourage them to chose a meaningful major. Most students change their major a few times anyway, but it is important for high schoolers to see how different college is and how technology is rapidly changing and effecting the work force.

It's Not About The Technology
Kelly Hines made some really good points in her post. If you do not know how to use the technology effectively then what good is it doing. She is correct, for the technology to be a good learning tool the teacher must take the initiative to make it successful. It will be hard to change the mindset of many educators though. For some subjects it will be hard to integrate technology into the classroom, and even harder to get a teacher, who really is not interested in using it, to get motivated. But all teachers can teach their students to be creative and I think that is the most important aspect. When kids are using their creativity to all of their ability there is no telling what they will come up with. When you allow children to use enjoyable things in classroom activities, I think it helps them learn the material better. Encouraging your students to be creative is I think one of the most important things to bring to your classroom. Without our unique senses of creativity we would all be very similar, but as children express their creativity they begin to see talents they did not know they had.

Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
After reading this I do not think that it is okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher. I really enjoyed some of the examples that he used in this reading. He wrote that many parents use their poor math skills growing up as an excuse for their child's poor math performance. These parents said this in front of their children, and acted like it is socially acceptable to be illiterate in math. I liked this example because I tell people all the time that I am terrible in math, but I have never thought about it from this perspective. He says that many people use this same outlook when they talk about their computer skills. It is okay for people not to know how to use computers just like it is okay for people to be bad at math, but it is not okay for them to be completely unwilling to learn. He makes the statement, "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." I did not agree with him about this. I think that even thirty years ago a teacher who could not read and write would not be able to teach their students what they needed to know. Today even if you are technologically illiterate you can still teach your students what they need to know. But I do think if technology continues to grow at the pace it is now, that this will be the case and one day all teachers will have to be technologically literate to teach their students.

Social Media Count
This site was really interesting. It is amazing how much can happen in just a few second. I think what this means for us as future educators is that we are going to have to start learning things about technology now if we want to be prepared when we enter the class room. With things changing so quickly it is hard to imagine what will be available for the students that we are going to be teaching.