My Presentation

Why Wireless?

The post I chose to read was Fischbowl's best post of November 2007 "Why Wireless?". As Arapahoe High School was opening its wireless network for personal use (for students, teachers and parents), there were some concerns popping up in the community about this practice. No one wants students to get off track in class, and I know that it is easy to do when you have the whole internet in front of you. The great learning opportunities that the web brings outweighs those concerns. It also gives those students access to useful school sites like the Campus Portal (grades and assignments) and Teacher Web Pages (assignments, notes, handouts and presentations).

Students today need all the opportunities we can give them to learn. So much is expected from the youth today. I never had assignments in high school (or before) that required internet use. This generation relies on the internet for both school and personal use, so it is a great idea to open up the network to the students. The blog states, "We feel that to be successful in the 21st century, our students are going to need different skills, abilities, and habits of mind than we did in the last century." They need not only need those different skills, abilities and habits of mind, but they also need to be able to learn them at a rapid pace to keep up with the changing world around them.

Is it Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

I thought that when comparing people being technologically illiterate today with people in the 20th century not being able to read or write, he made a valid point. The world is growing more and more dependent on computers. Sure, you can still be successful today not knowing a lot about computers, but the class of 2020 will not have a successful future being computer illiterate. My dad is a deputy VP for a company, and he has no clue how to run searches on the web let alone type without "chicken pecking". A few years from now, that will not be an acceptable standard.

However, we should not judge teachers so harshly. Teachers do have a lot on their plates both at school and personally, but they should still do their job with the future in mind. We're supposed to prepare the children for that future, so teachers and principals need to advance themselves in order to advance the children.

International schools using blogs

Al Upton is a teacher in at Glenelg School in Adelaide, South Australia. His blog is used by his 3 and 4 year students. The students not only learn how to incorportate blogging use into their lives, but also have fun doing it. He does not post assignments like American sites I looked at at do, but he does have instructions on how to do different things on your blog. Alot of the students left comments at the end of the year about their experiences in learning how to blog. They listed making new friends as a "cool" thing that has come out of this class. They all said that they were going to keep up their blogging after leaving his class. His blog links up with his students' blogs as well.
http://alupton.wordpress.com/

Fearghal Kelly is a Biology teacher at Ross High School in Tranent, East Lothian (Scotland). His blog educates his students on his life and different projects that they can do. There is an entry with a video that praises his class for their involvement in a conservation project that they completed.

http://edubuzz.org/blogs/fkelly/

American classrooms using blogs

Mr. Eric Langhorst teaches 8th grade American History at South Valley Junior High in Missouri. He uses his blog as a syllabus, listing items each day. He writes what was done in class and the homework assignment for the day. He also added helpful links such as class handouts, online textbook and chapter notes. He even incorporates pod casts into his teaching.
http://blackboard.liberty.k12.mo.us/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_275_1

Mr. Roemer teaches the 5th grade in Florida. He uses his blog to communicate all the different aspects of his class with his students. He blogs about homework assignments, grading and his behavior policy in the classroom (his students make up this policy each year). His website is fun and geared towards those young 5th graders. His blog has a public and a private sector. It protects the students by allowing only registered users (parents and students) to view those private messages.
http://www.pb5th.com/index.shtml

Shift Happens

I enjoyed watching this video. It was interesting to see how our society has changed in just a few years. I did not realize the power that technology will have over our everyday lives in the near future. I am grateful that technology is being placed in the hands of the generation that will be leading us in the future like putting a laptop in the hands of every child. I do find it scary that computers are going to be "smarter" than humans, and I don't like that we are becoming increasingly dependent on computers, e-mailing and searching the web.

ACCESS

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide provides students with a chance to enroll in advanced classes during their high school career. A lot of high schools in Alabama are not able to provide courses needed for an advanced diploma or advanced placement courses. By linking up via the web, students are able to either have direct contact with a teacher like a real classroom (IVC synchronous courses) or the student receives prepackaged information from a qualified teacher (asynchronous courses). There are also courses that mesh the two types together.

I have not used ACCESS before, but I have taken distance courses in college. I feel like I did get the most out of those courses with the convenience of completing my work at my own leisure. Because the courses are directed to those who are seeking an advanced diploma or AP courses, I believe that ACCESS would benefit those high school students that are willing to work hard to go above and beyond what is expected. When I begin teaching, I will make my students aware of this program and encourage my students to take advantage of such a great opportunity. ACCESS would allow those ambitious students to remain engaged in school and not become bored in basic courses.