In the Age of iEverything... Pt Duex

If you recall my previous blog...which sported an awesome must see video, you will recall the great importance I place on technology in the classroom. I do try and stand by this. I have often allowed students to research on the internet as well as use different computer programs for creating reports that were not in document form. This might not always be the case, but I try and make it happen when I can. In fact, one time I was meeting with my supervisor and she told me she wanted the students to learn how to use research materials, i.e. dictionaries and encyclopedias. I proudly responded, "Fear not, they know how to search wikipedia as well as how to access dictionary.com and ninjawords.com." I take great pride in knowing my students were internet savvy. Not that I can take credit for this, I am pretty sure that group of students came out of the womb with a GameBoy DS in hand. She was upset because "EVERYBODY" should know how to use an encyclopedia....What??? WHY??? I surely do not go to my local city library and check out an encyclopedia to do research (Well mainly because you can't check them out, but you get the drift.) Heck, the higher up one gets in education the only research allowed is from peer reviewed journal articles which can mainly be found ONLINE! I do not see the value of teaching archaic methods of research when my classroom was equipped with two internet accessible computers. Well, the supervisor put her foot down...so I kindly asked for her to purchase me a set of encyclopedias. Magically Wikipedia worked just fine!