Journal #8: "Virtual Success"

"Virtual Success" by Julie Young, Pam Birtolo, and Raven McElman

This article was about using technology as a substitute for face-to-face interaction in the classroom. The article itself seemed a little bias and almost like an infomercial for Florida Virtual School (FLVS). Looking past this though the article had some interesting ideas and facts about this new form of education. The idea is to have a completely online education that allows students to work at their own pace and at their own time. The students could essentially communicate with teachers at any time during the day and made them feel like every teacher was taking a unique interest in them. The idea of running a school with no face-to-face interaction is fairly revolutionary seeing as how this has been impossible in the past.

What are the drawbacks of having an online education?

One problem would be social skills. Interacting in person is different from interacting online. With such a stress on the online aspect students may lack in social skills and abilities like making in person presentations.

Would I consider teaching at a school like this?

I think I would, it would be a new and exciting experience. I think I would definitely be different but it would also allow me to work at my own pace and at my own time like the students. Teaching also would be a little more personal with each students as we would constantly be communicating via email and having intimate conversations. While I wouldn’t be seeing them in person I would still gain a good understanding about all my students instead of just some.

Journal #5: Can you hear me now?

"Can you hear me now?" by S. Turkle

This article discussed how technology has become a part of ours lives and has embedded itself into our daily lives. It talked about how during a presentation at a technology conference people were more interested in their own pdas and cell phones and their online network of people than they were interested in the speaker at the conference. This is an interesting point because people travel miles to attend these conferences then they don’t even pay attention to the speakers and then are more interested in doing something they can do at home. The article went on to outline other ways as to how people with new technology are ignoring people in the real world and paying more attention to people in their virtual online world instead.

In the classroom should I be worried about a technological overload for the students?

I don’t think this will be an issue in today’s classrooms because of budget issues etc but also because I think at this point a typical class should not be completely technologically dependant. Students though are likely to have their own cell phones be connected to their friends on myspace and facebook. These things are just so common among today’s youth it’s more abnormal for them to not have these kinds of things. I think as a teacher it is important to be aware of this but to also teach of when it is appropriate to use these technologies and when it is rude to use them. I think its fine for students to be active participants in online communities but when a student enters the classroom they should become devoted to that community and give it 100% of their attention.

Will robots take over the Teaching industry?

It is an interesting proposition because robots have been designed to do so much. As far as I can tell though in the near future this is unlikely but technology like online classes is certainly the first step towards phasing out the teacher. The teacher is still necessary but the face to face interaction is not there any longer. It’s amazing how technology has revolutionized so much, like teaching.

Journal #3: Too cool for school? No way!

"Too cool for school? No way!" by Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.

This article was about technology and how to include technology in the classroom. The article defines technology then gives 3 examples of how technology can be used in a classroom. The first example was that of microblogging with a class. By using twitter to accentuate the core course content the professor hoped to help the students learn. The article made clear though that this cannot happen in a vacuum but must be an addition to core teaching principles. The next example was using specialized search engines to aide learning. Search engines that used pictures would help the students make associations easier. The final example was “DJ Software” which helps students learn mathematical concepts like ratios, fractions, and percentages. This article made clear that a teacher these days needs to be willing to work with technology that may or may not help in the classroom.

Would I use any of the tools described in the article?

I really don’t think I would use any of the examples shown in the article other than maybe the specialized search engines. While I think they are only useful in limited situations I think there are some times when being able to use a picture based search engine would be useful in a classroom especially with younger kids where pictures hold more meaning.

Why would I be unlikely to use the other technologies?

Twitter was one of the other examples of a technology in the article and I think it would only be useful on a college campus where you can assume all of your students have extended access to technology. On a high school campus though many students only have limited or no access to technology thus twitter becomes useless. “DJ software” on the other hand, does not apply to my focus, English, and would therefore be useless to me.

Journal #2 -Social networking for the K-12 set

"Social networking for the K-12 set" by J. Klein
This article was a real proponent of including Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. It had a lot of neat ideas in it, like having students participate in creating their own pod casts and having teachers have their own informational blogs for both the parents and students. One of the most interesting ideas was the idea of creating a strong community within the teachers and students over the web. This enables people from across the world to be connected with each other and to communicate new ideas regarding teaching. Utilizing technology in this fashion is something that has never happened before in history, the instantaneous communication of ideas across the world.

1. What tools described in the article would I utilize in a classroom?

I think one tool that I will definitely use will be having a teacher run website that both the students and parents can look at and interact with. This sounds incredibly useful to me because it will enable students and parents to always be aware of what is going on in the classroom and what assignments are. It will also be useful to me because it will provide a forum where common questions will already be answered as well as an easy place for me to receive questions and assignments.

2. What drawbacks are there from using all the technology?
One drawback I see is becoming completely dependant on the Web 2.0 utilities. This can be bad because if the technology is not available to a student for whatever reason they will be at a disadvantage. Also, if the school that I work at isn’t fully integrated with technology it can become difficult to run a website and update all the Web 2.0 applications that I want to use.

Journal #1 -"Your Google Guide"

“Your Google Guide” by Doug Johnson, showed a lot of the basics of Google and some tools that can often be overlooked. To me, a lot of the article seemed somewhat basic, as I basically have grown up utilizing Google. The most interesting part of the article, to me, seemed to be the statistics by John Battelle, "80% of users never proceed past the first page of results." This kind of information seemed shocking. How can people never go past the first page? There are only 10-20 results usually on the first page. I had no idea that so many people out there did not know how to use Google correctly. I thought that for a novice using Google this article would be really important. In fact, I would say that for someone who is using Google for the first time an article like this should be essential reading. Without the knowledge portrayed in this article it would be difficult to use Google to its full extent and to utilize its power. Google is a powerful tool but only in the right hands. If you don't know how to use it correctly, Google is not nearly as powerful as it can be.

1.How can the knowledge that most people do not use Google correctly help me?
I think that by knowing that most people do not use a common search tool like Google it becomes imperative that in a classroom environment that I make sure everyone does know of the basics of Google. Whether I do this by doing a slight overview of Google in my class or if I simply assign this article as reading assignment. Either way I definitely need to try to make sure everyone has the basic Google skills.

2. Should Google as a researching tool always be taught?
Google is the most powerful search engine on the Internet and the most commonly used. I think that when teaching someone how to research on the Internet the skills to use Google correctly should probably be taught. Even if the students do not use Google and instead use other research methods online many of the skills in Google translate over. Many of the Google utilities can be found on other search engines so these skills need to be taught whether we use Google or not.