Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Response to "Adopt and Adapt" and "Synching up with the iKid"

I found these two articles a bit frustrating. I felt as if they were reprimanding teachers for not using every technological advancement available in the classroom. Unfortunately (and as the author noted), sometimes the teacher is the last one to have the option to use technology in the classroom, aside from the basic internet usage. Board members and superintendents make many of those decisions long before the first lesson plan in August is implemented.

According to “Adopt and Adapt”’s definition, I mostly do old thinks in old ways, and sometime old things in new ways. I am willing to try new things in new ways, but I am definitely a creature of habit, and I generally have the opinion that “what was good enough for me as a student is good enough for my students.” I honestly have to fight that one a lot.

My basic feeling after reading these two articles is…tell me what to do and I’ll do it. If I don’t know it’s out there, I can’t use it. And if I don’t know how to revolutionize my classroom with technology, I will stick with what works.

I am well aware that students these days can multitask electronically. My 13-year-old daughter sits at the computer on MySpace, chatting with at least four different people on iChat, and talking on her cell phone, all at the same time.

The best idea out of the whole readings (in my opinion) is the school that uses no textbooks, only PC’s. It was a good example of how to get technology into the schools that would better keep our students informed on the newest advances in science, etc. I would be interested in finding out how well that went over in that school. What were some of their major problems? What were some of their successes? How can we use their knowledge to help our students?

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