I-pads for all

@dmp_gctc

Throughout our time in class this summer, we have been discussing technology in a very positive light. More technology has been viewed as the ideal situation. However, I have a problem with too much tech in the class. The article I found on twitter really made me think of this. I keep thinking about the move toward etext books and I'm not so sure I like that idea. I understand the cost of having all of your text books plus hundreds of educational apps on a tablet will be far less than paper books and additional resources, but what about replacement cost? I think of the students who already have a hard time paying for minimal text book rental fees. Now I'm sure that the school will ask parents to pay a rental/insurance fee on a crazy priced device they can't afford. I'm also nervous about the safety of carrying those things around. I can just imagine students being robbed and hurt for the ipads. Even though the schools in florida plan to put blocks on them to prevent students from downloading new apps, a thief will not know that. If students are being harmed for shoes and cell phones, I'm sure someone wouldn't mind sticking them up for an ipad.
I also dont care for the lack of choice there is in situation. The article says that the districts in florida are being pushed to
making them required across the board by 2015. I'm not all clear on what having the devices vs real books will do for a child, but it just seems like there would be a problems that will be difficult to fix.

Last weeks post a week late

Sooo, apparently I forgot to click publish post on this last week.  So now what I thought was on time, is actually a week late.  Yep. Story of my life.

   I'm really excited about this post today because last week I posted about Piazza, a social networking site for college students.  My question was if there was one for high school or if Piazza had any interest in expanding to high school.  Then, TA-DAAA, I learned about Edmodo!
    This site, like Piazza, a social networking site for high school teachers and their students.  I love this idea because I always felt that Facebook was an inappropriate way of keeping up with your students.  Yeah you can start a club or something, but there was just too much room for your "sexually liberated" friends post to become accessible to your students. And it's just setting the kid up for trouble when you see their "sexually liberated" friends pics (who happens to be one of your students) on the site.  The funny thing about Edmodo is that it is designed to look and function just like Facebook, which will cut down training time.   There's real time chat capabilities, document sharing, etc.  I love it!
    I have already signed up for an account with the network and have ideas on how to use it with a class.  One thing I have thought about is to let the students know that I will be available between a certain time every night on the site to help with any homework concerns.  That way they can get their work done and I can informally assess their progress and trouble spots. It can also be used for group meetings. There's not enough time during class for group meetings (for projects, etc.) and not everyone can get out of the house to meet their group.  With this program, the group can discuss on-line what they want to do and I can be available for feedback as well.  One of my favorite ideas though is to use the tool for class discussion.  If something is on television for example that is relevant to our class content, the assignment could be to watch the show while on Edmodo and we can hold discussions in real time.  I would able to check everyones participation through the post and also have documentation of what was said that could further enrich the next days lessons.  I am really excited about using this tool with a class.

Integrating tech in the class rooms

An article I found on twitter called "involving teachers in technology" discussed the overall concern that many people including myself have when thinking about my future class; what is the general feel about using more tech in schools? The article touched on three main points that I have been thinking about. One, how do we get this new and improved tech in the schools? The schoosl in the article were based in Illinois and they were very good at applying for grants and joining contest. This helped me because I can imagine the main answer to improving tech is "we dont have the budget". This can be a great help to school on urban communities where money needs to be distributed wisely. The second question I always thought of  was what do we do with the equipment once you get it? I personally have seen a school purchase 20 fancy new digital cameras and never use them. The teachers either said they didn't know how to work them or they didn't want to be responsible for breaking them. The article talks about the importance of holding PD with the sole purpose being tech training. With all of the new products coming out, it can be little intimidating to not only use them, but to use them in front of your class (kids can be cruel, especially when you mess up). The training from an actual IT person is so important , not just one teacher fiddling with it, then trying to teach everybody else. That brings me to the last point I had, which the article actually confirmed as one of the issues of upgrading tech in the schools. There's an influx of new technology in the school, all of the teachers and students now know how to use it. But who is going to fix it if something goes wrong? Some schools only have one actual IT person around, if they have one at all. That is a big job for one person and out can really slow down the use of the tools if there isn't anyone there to support it. The article gives a specific example of the school crashing or over acceding its bandwith. I think this is another reason so many schools dont increase their tech, because they dont think they can afford to pay someone to be available all the time to fix the problems that will naturally come up with technology.

http://tinyurl.com/3q2lawr

Social networking for homework.

Via @OfficeofEdTech

In an article in the new york times, there is an interesting woman who, out of her own need for assistance with her college level work and isolation as an Indian woman in higher education,devloped an online community called Piazza. This online social networking site served as a mixing of facebook and blackboard. However, it took the classmate and instructor interaction from the sometimes static blackboard and joined it with the speed and notification systems of facebook to ensure that if you were to post a question from any class material on the site, fellow students and instructors would be able to respond and you would receive a notification within 14 minutes
I think this is am amazing tool for students. There was no discussion of her possible extension to high school (and I'm not sure if one already exist), but I would think that it would be a great tool for a high school to have. Specifically operated by grade level. This could be used to monitor class participation if a question is posed for discussion and a informal assessment tool (gauge what type of questions people are asking and the level of answers they are providing. Also this would really raise class togetherness. They see each other as valid recourses and, in turn, they all become teachers.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/technology/04piazza.xml

Hong Kong future lab (my response)

I found a link on Lucy Grey's @elemenous twitter feed (don't even know if I'm saying that right)that discussed a very innovative school in Hong Kong. With the technology in China being so advance it came as no shock to me that they would be on the cutting edge, but I never thought about ways that their students are incorporting it in school. The students in the classes used ipod touches in the class to do constant revisions on their work and future work on their languages and it was stated that "technology allows the school to extend learning opportunities beyond the school day and the school term". They also use lots of audio and visual components to work on their English comphrension. This makes perfect sense to me and I wonder how many ELL (English language learner) courses in our public schools actually take advantage of technology to work with students or do they stick with the books?
The most interesting part of the article was the fact that even though technology is impressive in their country, there was still a struggle to embrace it in the school. The principal discussed how the move away from a more "passive, traditional" approach to education was surpassed by the need to prepare students to function in the world of today and tomorrow. This mindset switch is difficult in many schools in the city due to the lack of funds and resources to build a respectable technological presence in a school. I also think that many of the adults fear of technology is another reason that more of it isn't used in the schools, which is incredibly sad, because the children miss out on more info than one teacher could ever teach them.
http://ow.ly/5tVhT