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Don't Teach Your Kids this Stuff. Please?

Scott McLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky and is the fellow that created the Did You Know? videos on YouTube that show insane facts about the world's population and percents usually relating to technology.

Sure, I agree with some of the arguments in this post, but it jumbles so many different aspects of the computer that it essentially makes your case invalid. Using technology for educating is something completely different than personal pleasure. Let's face it, blogs and twitter really are self absorbed. How many people get upset when they realize someone has de-friended them on Facebook. Writing online, learning to search the web, and scan are helpful tools that, yes, children should not be sheltered from. However, I see no reason why a ten or fifteen year old child should be allowed to advertise their lives on a social networking site or be exposed to cyberbullying, sexting, and porn. However, I respect McLeod's decision to let his children do what they want. They'll have a leg up in something in the next couple decades.

iSchool Initiative and ZeitgeistYoungMinds Entry

As a high school student, Travis Allen took the initiative to create something larger than himself. The time, effort, and research he put into forming the iSchool Initiative is apparent. His proposition is for schools to save money by throwing ou books, paper, calculators, maps, and anything else tangible. His solution? The limitless applications all found on a Altoid box sized iTouch. He is now in college and travels across the country proposing his idea to schools, trying to make a difference in education and the environment.

I understand and fully support Allen's whole green initiative. However, I believe that taking everything out of a school besides the teachers and desks (don't worry, those will be gone too in a few years) is not the answer. Along with the limitless educational applications, students can download limitless games, books, and etc. so they will never have to be bored sitting through a class again. Schools are already worried about reading, WRITING, and math scores? Say goodbye to governmental funding. How can students learn grammar with spellcheck within the touch of a button and learn math when a graphing calculator can show you how it's done and give you the answer within one second? Good question. Last point, are the schools paying for these? Because it would make perfect sense to force single parent/low-income families to buy one for five children to be able to participate in class.

Eric Whitacres Virtual Choir

Wow! I love this innovative use of technology. Not only are the singers' voices themselves beautiful, but the quality of each separate then put together is phenomenal. I am a huge supporter of music, and I think the opportunity to take part in something like this would be so great. I also give many props to Eric Whitacres! I cannot imagine the time spent contacting the participants, composing the music, and editing the video could have taken. The product was wonderful!

Teaching in the 21st Century

Finally. A video about using technology in the classroom that is relevant. It suggests that teachers should be utilizing technology not only to "keep up with the times," but to prepare children for a life of problem solving and applying knowledge to everyday life. To analyze and create, not just watch, summarize, and duplicate. Not only to use google, presentations, blogs, articles, and YouTube, but to connect information between all of them.

The idea that stood out most to me was
students do not need to be entertained, they need to be engaged

Last fall in UAB's Global and Community Leadership Honors Program, I came to the realization after 12 years of school that I had never learned to connect information. We were doing field work and community service with an organization of our choice, then researching their website, and the social issue it addressed. We then had to collaborate all of the information to determine the organization's role in the community, if it was effective, and how it related to social, economic, political, and humanitarian aspects in the world as a whole. That is what using technology and making one's mark in the world should be about. It is what I, as a teacher can do to not only introduce my students to the world around them, but allow them to become a part of it, and make a difference. Because after all, they really can, and should be connected. Our world is too small to be stuck in your own community and not to explore. I think this is a concept Roberts understands.