Blog Post #5

1. My position in McLeod post, Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?, is I agree with him that technology is needed in the classroom to give students the upper hand. He listed most of the excuses teachers use, that do not incorporate technology into their classroom. McLeod was sarcastic when saying all of the excuses like he was worried, but he was really saying how ridiculous they were. I agree some where ridiculous, but things like sexting, predators, and cyberbullying are serious things. I do not believe however that integrating technology in the classroom will make those three things happen.  Scott Mcleod  is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He also is the Founding Director of the 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 series Did you know? (Shift Happens). 


2. In Travis Allen's videos Travis Allen ZeitgeistYoungMinds Entry and The iSchool Initiative (Mobile Learning) he introduced some bold ideas. The argument being made by Travis Allen in his videos is to get rid of text books, paper, pencils, and copy machines in school and replace those things with an iSchool. In iSchool there are many programs for the students and the teachers. For the teachers there will be emails that you can send to students and parents; while also keeping up with assignments you have given to the students. Also as a teacher you can record your lesson for the day for a student that was absent and the student will not be left behind. For students there will be so many upgrades. They will have textbooks at the touch of there fingers, without having to carry a heavy backpack. Also they will be able to record their teachers lectures and  listen to them again if needed. Finally they will have questions answered with a touch of their fingers; such as the periodic table and the math formulas.  
My reaction to this video is WOW. How could someone so young have thought through such a great idea. What is incredible though, is not that he has this great idea but how he put the idea into action so fast. He is now going to Kent State and is 20 years old and travels the country with a team and promotes his idea of iSchool. I also think his idea has some flaws, as most ideas have at the being stages. I believe that his idea is good, but it is throwing to much at people all at once. He needs to gradually introduce schools into this program. Just throwing out all textbooks, pencils, papers, and copiers is extreme for schools. It is like putting all your eggs in one basket. You cannot ask schools to do that because it is too big of a risk.

3. When watching Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir- 'Lux Aurumque' video it showed me how people can come together through technology and create something so wonderful. My reaction to this video was so surprised; I never knew that many people could come together through the internet and create something that needed absolute perfection. This just shows the power of the internet to people. The internet is not all bad and filled with porn, predators, and cyberbullies, but instead it holds the power to let people be creative. 


4. In Kevin Roberts video, Teaching In the 21st Century, what he thinks it means to teach in the 21st century is to apply technology. Teachers are no longer the main source of knowledge. Students can get knowledge with a click of a button on the internet. The teachers job in the 21st century is to be able to teach the students how to filter that knowledge they receive on the internet. How I feel about the positions that are expressed in this video is I feel they are very right. Teachers must now work with the internet and technology to teach students how they can become creative and how to filter out the things on the internet that are not reliable. If Robert is correct then how it will affect me as an educator is I will have to keep up will technology and innovative ways to apply technology into the classroom.