A Random Video & A Random thought!

After viewing Dan Brown's "An Open Letter to Educators" I find myself completely agreeing with everything he says throughout his venting blog. While I would never drop out of school (because my family would look down upon it to say the least), I haven't decided if he is a genius or just insane for his decision. I think that in having an opportunity to go to school we have a golden ticket to open doors of anything we want. I agree that the process of higher education is flawed in the way Dan describes, but I believe that having an education is needed for any goal we set in life.

I recently have fell in love with the show "The Walking Dead", and I truly have gotten paranoid over the idea of our world being completely blown back into the stone ages. The show consists of the idea that a virus spreads and takes over the earth, and only a handful of survivors are constantly fighting for their lives. There is no electricity or running water, and these people now have to rely on each other for survival. The internet and all technology is extinct! Now while the concept of the show doesn't scare me, it is the realization that without technology I don't think I would survive in this scenario.  Take away the flesh eating zombies and substitute it with a natural disaster like the ones we have been having lately. Technology can only save us from so much and it can only teach us so much. We put an emphasis in the educational system of WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW, but what happens if the whole world gets hit by a hurricane like New Orleans got hit by Katrina. What good does it do to learn about technology and the internet when most of us won't even know where to start in a situation like I've mentioned.  I can create an amazing powerpoint to assist my presentation and I can write you an analysis on almost anything you want me to, but if the power goes out there is no use for all this technology. Or is there?

Interactivity 2

"Learning to Read not Just to Repeat"

Source: http://explorepahistory.com/kora/files/1/2/1-2-18D4-25-ExplorePAHistory-a0l9p8-a_349.jpg




I think one of the greatest impacts of technology in the classroom comes from the transition of using solely the Bible and repetition as "teaching", to the publication of the Eclectic Reader in which a combination of words and images were used to teach. While the Reader continued to explain morals and had a religious undertone, it depicted real life situations. It was no longer the word of God being studied, but rather described the everyday trails.

Now in the video a lot of attention was paid to the use of visual instruction. While it is still used today to explain themes and show films on certain subjects, I think the impact of the radio had a greater influenced in the subject area of English rather than the television. I feel that, ideally, hearing the way English word were spoken on the radio, as well as being exposed to the auditor common way of English sentence structure would have had a great benefit instead of seeing the projected words on a screen. Even though the use of radios had ceased because of sound quality and reception issues, the radio gave way to the television. Having them both used as technological advances, I think the radio would have ideally had more affect of the education system.

Food for Thought

I found this article in the NY Times. Its pretty interesting because it discusses the Education Gap in reference to the rich and poor of our country! Click on the link below!

Education Gap Growing!!!

Interactivity 1: Technology as an autobiography

The three technologies that I cannot live without are my cell phone (because of text messaging and email and of course phone call capabilities), my computer (for typing up paper; if I had to hand write everything no one would ever understand what I had written, and emails), and the internet (for social networking, communication with long distance friends, etc).

These three technologies influence my life greatly. I have a lot of military friends and a long distance boyfriend so Skype and Oovoo are great tools to communicate to people out in TN to friends overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan. If I hadn’t have had these programs through the internet, again I would have had to hand written letters, which my friends wouldn't understand anyway.

Now my handwriting isn't as horrible as I am making it seem, but thanks to computers I, nor my readers have to struggle to understand what I'm trying to explain because of the fabulous way Microsoft Word makes the font very formal and easy to follow (i.e. hand written bubbles over the letter I and fancy big letters with a bunch of punctuation everywhere.)

And finally my cell phone is the single piece of technology I am GLUED to! I receive most emails on my phone, and I cannot live without texting. I bought my mother a smart phone for her birthday last year and she doesn't even call me anymore. She knows it’s easier to communicate with me through text than through a phone call.

Technology has changed so quickly in my life time that I am surprised that m mother has adapted to it so quickly. I have access to a computer and internet everyday through my personal computer and through multiple public computer labs. My concern as a future teacher revolves around my student’s ability to access technologies such as my own or if my students use of technology is hugely advanced from that of my understanding of technology.