Blog Post #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? :

     I loved this post! Dr. McLeod puts a rather humorous, obviously sarcastic, tone on a very important subject. I agree with this argument completely!Just as his kids are given the freedom to grow and become technologically literate, my children (in the future) will be given that same opportunity. Technology is not going anywhere but forward; don't put your children behind because you are personally afraid or unwilling to use technology or have your children use it. 

     Scott McLeod is the Associate Professor of Educational Administration at Iowa State University and the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). He is also the co-creator of the Did You Know? (Shift Happens) videos.

The iSchool Initiative:

     I personally do not have an iTouch, but my husband does- he loves it. Due to the fact that I do not have one myself, I had absolutely NO IDEA that hardly any of these tools are available to this technology's users. I think that the iSchool program sounds amazing. Not only would this program be easy and much more organized for both students and teachers, but as stated, it would be much more cost efficient. With our tiny budgets in schools today... what is the harm in trying this program?

     I read through a few of the comments that were posted on this video and I LOVED what he said to the skeptical person. This person stated that this program would not be possible, to think about all of the development money this would require, etc.  His response: It does work, and it is in many schools already. Buying a $1 Graphing Calculator App is much cheaper than a $100 real one. Overall, I loved this video. I think that this is a very innovative way of thinking about school and I think that more schools should at least give this program a shot!

The Lost Generation:

     Wow! This was a very powerful video. Short and sweet! I loved that everything she said, she was able to reverse and make it positive. I thought this technique was very eye catching and eye opening. I really enjoyed this video and I think that if it were shared with more people in my generation, people could actually see things for the way that they should, and can, be. 

Eric Whitacer's Virtual Choir:

     How incredible it would be to actually be apart of this! I found this amazing, and do not even enjoy classical music. The fact that every single one of these choir members was on their own computer, in their own home (or where ever they were) just completely blows my mind. Each member would have been watching the director on their own computer and this is a compilation of each member on their own. This is just amazing to me!