Ok...I'm officially a blogger! Wow...what a right of passage in the technology world. I am very excited about this course. I truly believe that the youth of today are the most SOLD population that America has ever seen. Almost every moment of the day our young minds are being influenced by some sort of creative advertising. When one considers the draw of X-Box, On-line Gaming, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, etc., it becomes no surprise that the education system cannot even compete. Questions that emerge from this frame of thinking include: How does education advertise? How much of the budget is allocated for advertising?
What an irony...at home our youth most often have access to the world at their fingertips, yet at school they are often confined to a hard chair and a desk.
If education is going to compete for the attention of young minds we need to step up to the plate and enhance the technological capacitites of our schools. This includes such things as Smart Classrooms, with Wifi capabilities, Smart boards, Projectors, desk computers, clickers, etc. We are searching for ways to get students to buy-in to learning...however we have lost their attention as consumers. Their cell phones are now small computers, with capabilities largely untapped by the educational community. Youth are always available; between text, myspace, facebook, and now even cell to cell tracking, they are always dialed in. I guess the question then is how do we get them to dial in to school?
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It doesn't shock me Libby, because great minds think alike, but I blogged on a similar topic. The possibilities of technology are awesome, but the next, and perhaps most important, step is making sure it is accessible.
ReplyDeleteOh, this is Kyle, but for some reason I wanted to keep my name private on my account. Follow my blog: http://leearbuckle.blogspot.com/.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, our district just got equipped with all those toys you mentioned in our classrooms (due to a Bond that just passed in Moorpark). The teachers are getting training and are eagerly going, without pay and during their own time after school and on Saturdays. They know they have to learn it and use it, and they are doing so. I see their discomfort and their motivation - it is pretty cool to watch this transforming process with nearly every teacher in the district!
ReplyDeleteYou all must watch tonight's Simpson episode "Bart gets a 'Z'", perhaps it's on Youtube already, quite context appropriate. When it comes to tech in the class, I hope they have great on site support and a "Plan B" because Murphy's Law is never going to be obsolete.
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