Reflective Blog #1 Johnny Penix
6-12-11
When my educational technology philosophy is written down I am able to discern the direction I need to go in getting new technology. My philosophy helps me to realize that technology is about people not technology. My focus needs to needs to always include my students, teachers, or parents when thinking about how to use technology to improve student success. Technology must be about student success!
Blogging is somewhat new to me. I know of it but had never done it until this week. From the article, and the short time I've been Blogging now, Blogging seems to be a good social outlet to connect small groups and to also allow connection to whole world. It seems to me that Blogging promotes writing and can obviously be used in education. I agree with the article that Blogging is great for some people. My wife would be a great Blogger. She loves to write and put her feelings on paper. This would give her a voice. For me, not so much. However, from an educational standpoint, I believe it would be a good tool that allows everyone an equal voice, unlike classroom discussion. One can post when the time is convenient for them. A teacher can easily post notes and discussion point for students to see or write about. I also like that Blogs allow you to vary the scope of people able to see the Blog. You can have a private connection between Teacher and Student, as well as all students in a group being connected to the world. I think that Blogging hasn't reached its potential and may not ever. I think that people have moved on to newer social media technologies like FaceBook and will continue to move onto the new technologies yet to have appeared. Blogging has its place but may possibly never get much bigger.
Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning talked about a video camera in the classroom. Wow! The hidden, unseen world of the classroom. If people only knew, and maybe that's why they should know. The High School classroom can take on many faces throughout the year. It would be interesting to see how the public feels about those faces. Teachers can be great, and not so great. Students can be... (just like the last sentence.) I think that a camera in the classroom would eventually change the way we teach forever, for the better. There's too much hidden atrocity in a classroom.
Educational Technology connects educators to multiple resources and othered educators via the internet. These educational websites showed how educators could find digital material like publications, libraries, journals, audio, video, and video-conferencing. Educators could connect with other educators using social media like Ning, Facebook, and Twitter so they can share new ideas curriculum, and methods. New technologies for the classroom are also previewed and discussed. So, educational technology is used to connect students, teachers, parents, and the greater community so that educators can have the greatest chance for facilitating student success. The articles by Prensky show that radical changes have occurred in the way our N-Gens think! Video games, and multiple technologies have created students that multi-task and use parallel think. Educators are way behind in the way we should teach these kids. Instead of the kids lacking the ability to learn and focus, the onus is on the teacher to catch-up. The future is bright but we need to stop blaming and get in the game!
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