Ch 10

The role of a teacher is to prepare students to be successful citizens in the twenty-first century. In chapter 10 of Guiding learning with technology the subject of evaluating the pros and cons of technologies in the classroom arises and is final discussed. Throughout this semester I have been against the majority of the views of this textbook, but over the past few chapters I am starting to agree with a few of their views. Their needs to be evaluation of technology and the necessity of the tools put into classrooms. Technology for technology sake degrades the learning experience. Technology must have a purpose and teachers must understand the pros and cons of how they teach to teach effectively.
Chapter 10 starts with the discussion of calculators in the classroom. This is a favorite of my discussions of the costs of constant computer use in our society. I have often enjoyed asking math professors and math majors one simple question. If you have 180 miles to travel and you are traveling at 60 miles per hour. How long will it take to get to your destination? Almost all will run for their calculators and many fail to answer this question if their calculator is not present. It is just were we have come as Americans.
Why learn how to spell? When there is spell check. Why learn long hand math, when there is a calculator? Why make plans with friends in advance when you have cell phone? I have seen people that communicate best when testing. Then they fall apart when they have to have a face-to-face conversation. Because it makes them nervous, what if they say the wrong thing? It took my entire photography class 10 min to figure out 78/13. I said it was 6 but it took 10 min and a calculator being run twice for them to believe it. But truly when will one be writing without a computer and spell check? When will students not have a calculator? They are on computers, cell phones, and watches. Why slow down and make plans and stick to them when you have a cell phone that allows you to change plans in a split second?
Technology is a powerful tool for society. Progressions in technology have put America as a front leader as a world power. It makes life far more efficient when used properly. But!!! Technology should not supplement technical skill and understanding of the subject matter. Having technical skill in a subject limits the cost as well as the time it takes to perform the task. Tool and technology provides this ability to expedite tasks when in the hands of someone that knows how to use them. Commonly just having the tool doesn’t allow the task to get completed. Bigger and bigger tools have become our way of solving problems. I see this form of problem solving constantly and am guilty of it as well. When faced with a problem we look to get a bigger better tool to solve the issue before we sit back and think about the issue and then problem solve.
Within the next generations born in the twenty-first century it will become necessary to teach student how to think and problem solve and not to just reach for the biggest baddest tool. Students will need to learn how to problem solve. The best way to archive this is have them have a complete understanding of the subject matters that will face them and have them understand where they are intending to go. Give them competence and direction.

ch 7

Chapter seven is a very broad chapter!!! Covering topics such as blogs, virtual tours, international pen pals, chat rooms, web quests, then the Internet and much more. The main ideas behind all the tech talk were the most profound. The idea of application for intention, not use for use. The fact that this book finally hinted at this idea brought a smile to my face. The most profound topic was left to the final sentences of this chapter. The idea that it is more important to teach the topic of intent than spends the majority of the time teaching the technology. When a technology becomes more of a hinder to education than help then it must be set aside for the greater good of the children.
Another topic that was raised in this chapter was the discussion that children must be educated on how to use chat rooms and blogs safely. The same as one would teach their children to look both ways before they cross the street. So to should parents and teachers should teach the children how to safely use the Internet. There are a lot of risks out there but students can be protected by proper education and supervisor awareness.
The more superficial topics of this chapter were the applications of spreadsheets, databases and the Internet. The idea is that no longer is the library the primary source of information. One can now log onto the Internet, log into a database somewhere and retrieve just about anything they had interest in knowing. Company’s can create databases. I’m sure the Vatican library has an amazing database. (If we could only get access). Some databases are shared and some are private. Each serves the function of housing massive amounts of information and indexing the information for easy access.
I did not know that there were bots that categorized ever-new web page. Computers crawling from web page to web page posting the sites to the search engines, Amazing.
In recap, there are thousands of things you can do to help children learn. But keeping education safe, fun and informative is the job of an educator.

Ch 5 word processors

Word processors are the new form of written language. Same as when people moved away from script to block writing for the ease and clarity we now move to typing. Typing up papers is faster, easier to revise and edit. Leading to the position that typing should be included in all classes and disciplines.
For many students keeping a current work flow of ideas in an electronic journal will help develop ideas. Word processors allows one to work on a topic them jump to another and easily make space for new ideas relevant to the initial topic without having to glue in new pages. They typed language will progressively take over the hand written word but as educators we must not let students believe the computer will do all the work for them.
The key will be the formulas for prewriting, revision, and editing. These are all made easier with a word processor but they still hold up to the same standards as previously hand written papers.