Blog Post 4

Don’t teach your kids this stuff. Please? -Scott McLeod
To find out who Scott McLeod was, I went to scottmcleod.net/bio and found out he sure is a lot of things! So, before I mistakenly rewrote something about him, here’s a little of his bio found on the website, “Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University. He also is the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). …widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues.” Check out that website for more info on him!
Like everyone else it seems, I too, had to read this several times. I think that might be the point? When I finally understood it, I thought, “Wow! He is so right!” He wasn’t bashing technology, he is all for it. Just as he says, he allows his own kids to use it. What he is saying by this sarcastic, truthful, funny post, was what those against technology say as their excuse for not allowing their children to use it and he nailed it! Those are exactly the reasons parents don’t allow their child to use the internet. They say there are stalkers, predators, porn, and cheating that go on when using the internet. Well yes, but that stuff is everywhere. Which is why they make privacy settings. Do they think there children won’t get online at friends houses or school?
They don’t realize how educational it can be and that’s why so much of it is used in classrooms today. Technology is advancing so extremely fast, if you don’t expose children to it, they will be completely lost and miss out on opportunities in the future, such as jobs. Of course, I wouldn’t allow my 8 year old to have their own Facebook or twitter, but what is wrong with the educational or even just fun games and things for them to do online? If you have control of what your children are doing on the internet and looking at, you shouldn’t have to worry. Bad images are everywhere!! You can’t not allow your children to do things in life because they might run into something bad or dangerous. They need to learn and be exposed to such things. Blocking the internet or other technology because you’re afraid, is the same as taking away educational learning. I loved Dr. McLeod’s attitude throughout his post.

iSchool
iSchool is a YouTube video made by a 17 year old named Travis, from Georgia. He believes he has a solution to America’s education problem. He talks about budget cuts, larger classes, and ask the famous question, “Does technology belong in our classrooms?” His short five-minute video is very interesting and well put together. The way he makes it sound, there will be no need for schools and classrooms in the future. Everything we need is on phones and computers. Very scary to us future educators! The upside is we would save a ton of money and the environment. Which to those of us who “go green”, this is a plus. I saw a comment on this video from someone in Utah saying their school is starting this iSchool program already. Wow! Travis says in the video, “Together we can and will make the iSchool a reality.” I’m all for technology but when it comes to having school through a phone, computer, etc., it scares me. These children need to be at school to learn and teachers need to be there to teach them.


The Lost Generation

I LOVE this video! It showed how just reversing things, like your attitude, can change everything.
People get so carried away with what the future will be, and how important their work is. Most don’t stop to live in the present, or to take a day off to be with your family. Your employer should know your family is first and it shouldn’t be a hassle to take off work for a short time to see your kid’s school play, etc. I understand all jobs don’t work this way but if people made their family their number one priority and not work and money, it would be.
I don’t like the way people view our (my) generation. As this video said, they think of us destructing the environment. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, “This generation with all their technology will ruin the world”.
I understand the assumptions with families that don’t stay together these days, but what about the families that do? This goes back to my point of making your family first in your life. I think it’s so expected to get divorced, people think it’s the only option and quit trying, because they listen to the media and the rest of the world talking about divorce rates.
I do believe technology plays a big role in losing our generation. Although I’m for it, I do think there’s a fine line to be drawn. For example, iSchool. No one communicates in person anymore; it’s all done through text and email. I can’t stand seeing someone in person who you talk to online, and not saying a word to each other, acting like you don’t know one another. I also hate when you know your going to see someone, so why send them an email or message and expect them to respond when you don’t say a word to them in person?!


Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
I think it’s really neat they were able to take that many people and combine them just by using technology to make the choir! When I first found out a lot of singers who do songs together have never meet, I was amazed! This is similar, but of course much more intense. You have to really know what you’re doing to be able to put that many people’s voices and director together and make it sound as good as it did.

Teaching in the 21st Century
Of course, teaching is different now and will be different when I start teaching on my own shortly. It seems like it’s advancing each year. Kids have no idea what projectors are or what it’s like to not have a smart board or computers in the classroom. I hope that teaching doesn’t come to involve so much technology that kids are not using books and pencils and paper. I don’t understand how you expect them to learn to write if they’re only writing on smart boards and typing on computers. It’s not near the same as writing on paper. Like I keep saying, I’m all for technology especially in classrooms, but when it gets to the point of no books, etc. is when I turn against it. I think people are getting carried away with all it can do and forgetting to add in the basics of learning, such as writing and hands on activities. You have to know how to combine the two equally. I believe there is a strong need for both in classes.