Class 2: Jan 26

So, today in class we hit a bunch of topics. Either I was more awake than last week or I've settled in more because class made much more sense. The classroom of tomorrow, so to speak, that of the 21st century is an interesting topic. It is difficult to not allow my personal feelings about technology interfere with discussions however.
Even in trying to recollect the points made in class during our discussion, it's difficult to embrace them positively by putting my personal opinions aside. The classroom for the 21st century will not be a traditional setting, where the teacher is the leading hand. We first spent time deciphering the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants. One, the digital native, represents those whose minds have developed around the language of techonology thus their minds function in somewhat different patterns to those of their opponent. Whereas the opposite are those, the immigrants, whose minds were not and have only come to enter the digital age as foreigners learning a new language. The barriers between the two peoples creat conflict in the modern classroom. The success of young learners in the modern classroom, where instructional procedures are dwindling rather unsteadily along the methodology of old learning, is at stake and adapting to these new fast paced styles of learning seems to be what is considered the only solution. I differ somewhat in my idea about reforming an entire institution simply as a result of an overdriven movement or craze for rapidly advancing technology.
While I remain a user of technology, all things in moderation remains my stance. I hardly think eliminating instruction in schools on ho to do pretty much anything by using our brains to accomplish is the best solution. Again, why should education change because people have become too dependent on computers to do their thinking? Lessen their workload? With all this time saving, why are so many people facing greater stress and time restriction than ever before?? Saving time by eliminating the thinking process of editing our own writing and such so that we may devote greater time to playing games, texting etc just looks in my old eyes to be a sure sign that we are becomming inherently lazy and overstimulated!! If the minds have changed, take some of it away so that they can learn. we don't need all these gadgets and programs that we are saying should be accomodated in the classroom because children would rather use them. Why should learning have to be fun when it's about learning something and not having fun?? Again, maybe the possibility that kids are products of overstimulation and instant gratification because of weak parenting is to blame for their lack of focus in school.
Has anyone bothered to ask, despite the increasing advances and dependency on it and convenience of technology, which is something I can't change; when does it become enough is enough? Too much?? Just because it is very much happening doesn't mean it's good. We're getting too close to that apparently, as I've been finding out in class and I really fear how helpless people will be all too soon. I wait with all too much eagerness for the movement towards reverting to the old ways, towards preserving some bastion of human skill where people still use their minds and bodies, and decide to just toss it all out the window. I do very well without the cell phone I've had only since last year and penning loved ones on paper with ink, handwritten in ink.
Back to class, creating an environment where learning is a shared activity should be and needs to be interactional. This is true. Cram studying is not a new phenomena, nor is test anxiety, so we need to make learning relevant to students' lives by introducing information in a way that will allow students to be both engaged and able to make a connection with it for the long term.
A classroom arrangement, the physical setting, should foster this as well as accessibility. Grouping students through out the room (in the best case scenario with computers at each station) such that they can easily communicate with one another while at the same time working in conjuction with what the teacher presents would make this possible. We talked a little about copyrighted materials as learning tools. So long as they are used within the classroom, in limited amounts, and not in any way that will inhibit the authors' generation of income from the use or copying of for educational purposes is, in my eye, a valuable tool. The broader the scope of learning the better, especially with reinforcing materials such as articles or exerpts that are related to the classroom topic.

First Day of Class

Last night I had my first 'Effective Use of Technology' class for the spring '10 semester. Right now I still feel a little disoriented and the goals of the class rather hazy but hope after one or two more classes, once we get into the swing of things, these feelings will work themselves out.

We discussed whether or not education in America needs to be reformed. Do I think it does? My mind was racing in a million offshoot topics as we discussed this topic and suffice to say after all that I really am not sure where I stand. My sister has been teaching in Philadelphia for about 8 years now and through her eyes I've seen how corrupt and ill run the public school system is. No doubt the troubled Philly schools aren't the only ones in the country/world that need to be fixed but at the same time I feel that, to solve the problems of one school we cannot use a 'fix all' solution because certain problems (while some often universal) are very specific.

Times are changing and I as much as it scares me to see how fast the world is moving forward education will need to adapt to these changes. In particular, those relating to technology.It isn't necessarily good though why we need to compete with other countries. America used to be a leader in industry and if that hadn't been sold out from under a nation that willingly allowed it to be pushed away with two hands to nations that were grateful to take it... we wouldn't be struggling to make these quick adjustments.

Despite how great my opposition, how much resistance there is to my point of view on the matter, I will continue to feel as I do now- me being up against a whole society who has come to believe the opposite of what I believe is best. My stance on technology and preparing to gear our whole American society toward a technologically proficient yet industrial insufficent nation is this:
It can be a great convenience. Lord knows in writing my story it makes things go much faster when I'm editing on a computer versus by hand on paper, but why on earth do four year olds need to be using Ipods and computers as opposed to reading or building things?
Who is going to mind the farm and deliver our goods to the stores when everyone has been ushered off into offices with college degrees? Children still need to be outside using their imaginations and playing until they get of age where they begin to outgrow this, which is when I first started using technology. Am I any less productive or skilled? In areas where I am not it isn't because I couldn't be, I chose not to be because I fear what will happen to a world totally overrun by computers. Will people know how to live/survive if something tremendous should happen and we'd be without it all?

Illiteracy and such are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of America educational plagues. Is it entirely on account of schools not doing their jobs? They are doing the same if not better than what they were 50 years ago when most kids went on the graduate from highschool knowing how to read and write. Many problems are social, it's just easier to blame the educational system it seems, when needed. Theere are teachers in inner city schools who are there to teach, standing in empty classrooms. Where are the students? They don't want to learn, because it isn't cool to take education seriously in our culture anymore. Watch tv or movies or geared towards a certain age group anyday and see who the smart kids are. The nerdy kids, the ones who are bullied and ugly and sit alone in the lunch room with glasses on and braces. The epitome of uncool is being smart. How is this the schools' fault that kids don't care? Perhaps there are severe deficits in our social structure as well.