Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Blog Post 3:



MICHEAL WESCH

I would have to say that my collegiate experience is frighteningly similar to these students. On a positive note, my class sizes have been considerably smaller than the 115 average that these students have and I believe that more than 18% of my teachers have bothered to learn my name. Of course, that could be because they have had smaller classes. This semester I have so much reading to do, I feel like I get less than 49% of the readings done. For me, going from a small high school, to a small community college was an easy transition because they were both very much the same. Last semester was my first here at USA and I was completely blown away by the work load and the expectations of the professors. I know that I will read WAY more than 8 books this year. Between my two History classes this semester, I have 10 books that are assigned for me to read! Until now, I didn't really know what it meant to be a multi-tasker, but they are right, we have to be. Multi-tasking well is not my forte! The most depressing thought off all is the amount of debt I will face when I am done. I will have more than the $20,000 they had as an average. Some of the things that I would have added to the story board would have been in regard to how many full time students are also full time workers or single parents or English language learners or how many students have a language besides English, as their home language.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY

I found this to be a very thoughtful and well thought out post. Ms. Hines is correct; it is not about the technology. If teachers aren't life long learners; how can they effectively teach our students? If teachers don't want to be learners; why would students want to be learners? If teachers don't know how learn new things; what kind of example does that set for students.  I think Ms. Hines hit an important point in that technology is useless without good teaching. What good is a tool if you don't know how to use it? I have seen, with my own eyes, how computers and Smart Boards are being wasted in the class room because teachers haven't been trained properly and feel intimidated by technology. A teacher can reach students effectively without technology but having the technology can only add to and enhance the classroom.

IS IT OK TO BE A TECHNOLOGICALLY ILLITERATE TEACHER

I initially felt defensive towards the many teachers I know that are technologically illiterate (namely my mother). Most of the teachers that I know in this position are wonderful educators; they love their students and they are fun and creative in the classroom. They try to always give 100% to their students. But I do understand what Mr. Fisch is trying to say. Our children do deserve the best. They deserve to have a teacher that can introduce them to new technologies and to help prepare them for the future. Therein lies the problem. Are the teachers who are not literate in technology unfit to teach? I think there is no cut and dried answer. What I do think is that teachers should be willing to learn and that more training should be available to teachers who want it and need it. To me, there are more alarming things than a technologically illiterate teacher. Such as teachers who no longer like to teach or those teachers who no longer like students but they continue to teach for a paycheck or so they can get a full retirement.

GARY HAYES' SOCIAL MEDIA COUNT

The changes that I observed on the count progressed at an absolutely mind blowing rate. As a future educator, I wonder if I can keep up. It reminds me of the video, Did You Know 3.0. The video stated that when a student starts a four year technical degree, by their third year of study, what they learned in their first year of the program is already outdated. That means that my classroom has to continually evolve and progress. While it will be good to introduce new things and implement the use of different technologies, I will not be able to be satisfied with the way things are. I will always have to look forward.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with your comments and I feel for you all that have to buy all your books and pay for your tuition. I came from a city that was not really small but not big just in the middle. I had to multitask when I was in the service and at first it is hard but you get a handle on it quickly. The comment about asking whether they are working or just full time students is a great question to ask, because a lot are working sometime.

    I believe that a teacher has to be a life ling learner as you are saying, because you can not teach if you have stopped learning. We did not have smart boards in my school, but I graduated in 2001, which was an eternity ago when that comes in the form of technology. Teachers need to try every way possible way to get to students.

    I see what you are saying from the other side of the stream. I never thought of it that way. There are teachers out there that for some reason or another do not have the time to learn something new, which does not make them bad teachers. They do all they can in there classroom to educate and keep school fun other ways.

    I do not think we will keep all the way up to speed with technology, but we can keep learning more about it. That is what’s great about technology though it will always get better and faster.

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  2. Great use of adverbs!

    "A teacher can reach students effectively without technology but having the technology can only add to and enhance the classroom." I agree, but for the purposes of this class, focus on the ways that technology makes that connection easier.

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  3. Thanks for visiting our blog at the bottom of the earth - New Zealand :)

    I am interested that in a couple of your posts you refer to the need for teacher training in technology.

    I disagree :)

    We have a foundation statement in our NZ curriculum that says our students must be "life long learners". It follows it up with key competencies our students must acquire like "managing self", learning "language, symbols and text" etc.

    I tell our teachers that they MUST "manage self" as life long learners and get their OWN training if they have not kept up with technology. I think the early 1990's was when it was signalled we would need technology in teaching. So if 21 years later we have chosen not to get upskilled, why is it some-one else's responsibility to upskill us?

    I would like teachers in this decade to be accountable for filling in the gaps, and not placing it on schools to do it for them.

    Hope that is not too disruptive a perspective :)

    Dorothy

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  4. Dorothy,

    Thank you for visiting my blog! You are the first person outside of my classmates or teaching staff to do so. I am glad I was able to visit your blog at the bottom of the earth. :)

    I do not think that your perspective is too disruptive and there is much of it I agree with. There are many reasons why I feel that some training should be offered to teachers but I feel that the problems start at the top and trickles down into the classroom. Our school system is lagging sadly behind and how can a system demand something from their employees what they themselves will not do?

    In my comment under, Is It Ok To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher, I mentioned training being offered to teachers. I wrote that with Smartboards or Interactive White Boards in mind. Up until a couple of years ago, our schools had never seen one of these and slowly, they started being installed (there are still schools in our district that do not have them yet). My mother's school was granted these boards last year. Almost all the teachers (other than the few fresh graduates) had never even seen one, much less used it. The teachers were provided with one training class and then expected to be able to use them effectively. I thought that was a little silly.

    In regard to recent and future education graduates, I agree that they should be held accountable for training themselves. We are being equipped for that and EDM 310 is one of the classes that is showing us how to become life long learners and then pass that on to our future classrooms.

    Again, thank you for visiting my blog and I hope that you will come back soon. I look forward to returning to your school's blog throughout this semester.

    Jennifer

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