Blog Post #5

My response to Don’t teach your kids this stuff, Please.
Dr. McLeod,
I am a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I enjoyed reading your post, I am pretty sarcastic myself. I also agree with who will have the “leg up” later on in life. Technology is increasingly becoming more and more involved in our society. I believe we need to teach our children the latest and up to date information. If we don’t, how will they ever be able to compete with others who have had this knowledge? I know there are dangers, but there are dangers everywhere in life. Just like we protect our children in other situations we can protect them online.
Who is Scott McLeod you may ask? Well, Scott McLeod is widely known as one of the top experts in our country on K-12 technology issues. He has received awards for his continuing leadership in technology work. He is the founding director of the UDEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education or also known as CASTLE. This organization is the only center in the U.S. that is dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. He is also an adamant blogger on issues involving technology leadership issues.
Ischool Inittiative:
The Itouch school the idea is simple, no books and no paper in the classroom. Students would email assignments to their teachers and be able to pull up their assignments online as well. Universities all over the country already use techniques very similar to what Travis envisions for the youth of our country. I think it would be very possible to make it happen in middle and high schools around the nation.
Travis is an inspiration; he was a 17 year old high school student when he began this journey. I think it is incredible that he has gotten this much exposure and attention for such a great cause. The Ischool would be an extraordinary asset to our students and would actually be a goal that our schools could achieve. Travis even broke down some of the ways our school systems would save money. I think we all need to help encourage the Ischool system!
Virtual Choir
The video was amazing. I didn’t realize until I read Jennifer’s comment that they had never met or practiced together, that is unbelievable. The video was so beautiful and elegant; the director did an excellent job putting it together. Thank you for showing this to us Jennifer!
Teaching in the 21 century
This blog really inspired me, Mr. Roberts wants things to be different. He doesn’t want teachers to think they are the only source of information for students, because they aren’t. Kids are sponges, they soak up all kinds of information. Some of it is useful and from reliable sources, but a lot is just the opposite. They get information from their friends, strangers, and who knows where all they gather knowledge from on the internet. Teachers need to be a filter like Mr. Roberts said. We need to help them weed out relevant and correct knowledge and teach them how to do so once they leave our classrooms. Our challenge is to provide meaningful and powerful engagement for our students. I want my kids to go home and want to do the homework they were assigned in my class; I want them to find it interesting, which will make them want to learn. I want them to be able to research and gather information and be able to separate what is relevant and accurate from what is not. I want to encourage and inspire my students to want to create and explore new things, to make them interested in learning. That’s what I think it means to teach.