In the Age of iEverything... Pt C

I have spent the last two posts talking about technology in the classroom and what an avid proponent I am of such technology. My current school just put up Smart Boards in every classroom which is SUPER amazing! (This post is not about Smart Boards or their awesomeness so please access the link if you are unaware of this great technology for teachers.) I stand behind any school who is willing to go the extra step or dollar to make their classrooms interactive.

HOWEVER, every up has a down and every positive has a negative. Despite my huge support of technology I thought I would take a minute to share the downsides it can have in a classroom, with a very true to life tale.

Once upon a time there was beautiful princess. She greatly upset the wicked queen and was banned to a life of low paying servitude in an education setting...

Fine, don't believe me...I was working in my classroom for children with Autism, but trust me, there was a wicked queen, errr director. Back to the tale!

I was assisting one of my high functioning kiddos who was quite smart. He worked on a reward system in which he could earn highly reinforcing items for appropriate behavior. For him this was the internet. As I sat with him on his 15 minute computer break I began multi-tasking, which is normally great but today proved horribly wrong. The additional work caused me to take my eyes off the screen for a bit. When I looked up, expecting to see some dumb anime website, I saw Google maps on street view. How peculiar, it looked just like my apartment complex neighborhood! Oh but it was! This little ankle biter had used the white pages to locate my address and searched for me! His plan was to "murder me while sleeping." Luckily he did not live in the same city as me and does not have access to reliable transportation. (Notice I left out my doubt in his ability to carry out murdering me.)

Whenever I get on my high horse about technology in the classroom, I just think back to this shining moment in my career and start to research the price of encyclopedias!

PS: I am forever and a day unlisted from here on out!

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!

In the Age of iEverything... Pt 1

I heard a random quote while passing by a radio with a news station on...(I have no source for this information, unless "small counter in parents' kitchen" can be somehow sited in APA format!) This quote mentioned that the average child spends about 5 hours on some sort of computer equipment daily. Hmmmmm, sounds about right, but how often do you see children learning on computers in school? I mean as an adult, many jobs require the use of computers or internet access almost 24/7. Technology, social media, Smart Phones and all things computers are quickly shaping our lives and how our society functions! Holy geez, I make grocery lists on my iPhone, support my social life through Groupon, make plans via Facebook, take classes online, document my life through photos and twitter updates, heck even my mom just downloaded a new book to read! Why would we expect our nation's children to do anything different?

To drive my point home I considered composing a lovely essay on the importance of technological use in modern day classrooms...but I happened to stumbled across a video that clearly sums up my thoughts with fewer words and cute little kids! I thought rather than reading me ramble on, this video would suite you better! I really feel this is something everyone involved with children and schooling should watch. It points out some severe problems in the American education system and offers teachers a wide variety of options to make learning meaningful, active and hands on!

I will give you a minute to grab your popcorn....

3...2....1....

Now I am sure those who actually read my blog might have opposing view points. It should even be known that I too have denied my students the opportunity to create school work with technology as it might become harder for me to monitor. This is something I hope I can grow away from and learn how to better utilize in the future. I have some more thoughts that will hopefully be blogged in the near future to expand upon the use of technology in the classroom!