Blog Post #3

It's Not About the Technology
After reading Ms. Hines' post I have to say I agree with her 100%. I do not think it is all about the technology. Even though we are changing and in time it will be all about the technology but you have to build the house before you can live in it. There are teachers in public schools today that are well into their sixty's and they are not "technologically literate." Is that a problem today? Well in my opinion no, I think it will be in the future. That is why I am thankful for this class because when we graduate if we are not technologically literate we will be over looked in the education world. The teachers today that are not up to date with technology some of them know enough that they can get by but there are others that are so far behind that a workshop is not going to help. Are their jobs at risk for the future? I think so. I think they will be replaced by a new generation, one with new ideas. Technology is becoming a huge deal! I personally do not know how many years it will take but one day we will not have books for schools. What will the older generations do if they do not know how to operate what is in the future?
In a class that I have at South one of my teachers (in an education class) does not know how to operate the Smart Board. He literally stumbled across the fact that you can just press the board during a power point to go to the next slide. Meaning he tripped and caught himself with the board and said "Wow, did you all know it did that?" In another one of my classes a teacher asked me if I knew how to work the projector. I think that while yes teaching us to be technologically literate is most important I think the next step should be revamping our own teachers. With that being said I know we will get there one day.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? By Karl Fisch
I understand why that post won most influential post of 2007. That was very impressive. I am more thankful for EDM310 every week when we read these post. I am going to be honest, I did not know how important it is to be a technologically literate teacher. After seeing every week how many extremely intelligent people stress the importance of technology I see I was very wrong. I do not know as much as I should and I am learning. My sister is a teacher and when I was telling her about this class she told me to learn as much as I can because she now has to have a blog and website for her 3rd Grade class. She was not taught how to manage her own website and has had to learn herself. I never even thought at any time in my life that I would have to have a website when teaching a history class, but the day is coming.
I would like to thank Mr. Fisch for this post it put a lot in to perspective for me and I now want to focus and make more time for EDM310 because I am realizing this is a class I am going to need and use everything we learn. I would now like to thank Dr. Strange for showing us these videos and post, and also giving us the skills and tools we need to make it in the future. In Mr. Fisch's post he said "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it' s equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." Wow that is amazing! That one statement I feel sums up the basic purpose of our class. It is an amazing feeling when you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Gary's Social Media Count
I watched the Social Media Count in amazement. I watched it change by the millions per second. Then I noticed that I had only seen the information for 230 seconds! The numbers for a day, month and year were incredible! I could not believe it. This is going to change our lives forever. Teachers need to be more and more prepared for the technology in our future. Our lives will revolve around it on day! Students will be required to have social media accounts, assignments will be sent through them, who knows what all is going to happen? The amount of online classes are getting higher and higher. People are getting there Masters Degrees without even stepping into a classroom. The state of Florida has started an online high school program. Children are being taught at their own pace. Is this going to help or hurt our social skills? How will this effect our interactions in the future?
In five seconds I watched items shared on facebook jump to 67,000 items, in five seconds! I can barely say my name in five seconds. Thats insane! After watching the Social Media count I started messing around and watched the "Mobile" tab, I have an iPhone, I love it but watching the difference in Androids being activated compared to iPhones I think the world disagrees. There are about 400,000 Androids activated compared to iPhones sold. The world changes more and more every day. I never thought Myspace was going to be a thing of the past. But it is, I don't know anyone that still has Myspace. I can not help to wonder if facebook will to be in the past one day? With the way technology changes will facebook be able to keep up? Will people? I guess we will see.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today


I really enjoyed watching this video. I feel it tells the truth about how students really feel. We are tired, sometimes we don't want to go to class, we are thinking about other classes or taking the time to not think at all. I respect the students for taking the time to do the surveys to breakdown down their day by the hour the message is loud and clear. I agree one hundred percent that technology is the future, now is the time for us to learn how we are going to protect it so that it will not be abused. Students bring their computers but that does not mean anything related to school work is taking place. Teachers need the tools and knowledge of how to monitor and mold students into using technology in schools how it should be. There is a time and place for facebook, class is not it. I know that videos, blogs, articles and so on can send a different message to each person. Watching this video I thought how good is the classroom. Are students learning any more than they would online? I personally am a social person and I like the "in the classroom" feeling. I live in Baldwin County and commute just because I like being in the classroom listening to the teacher. Online teaching does not work as well for me.
With that being said, are those students going to be taken into consideration? Classrooms can not just disappear. How far can technology really go in schools? We still have to have them. How will we balance both? They sent the message in the end that implied to me that they do not believe technology alone will save us. I have to say I agree, life is more than technology. We are preparing for battles that are not here yet, jobs that are not useful yet, technology that can not be invented yet. So many things are going to be obsolete before they are even used. Life seems now to be a competition. Nintendo came out with Wii, then there was Xbox Kinect, then Playstation Move, they are all the same concept all different prices all claiming to be the best each putting the other in the past. What all is technology going to put in the past. The thought of people being replaced crosses my mind every now. It is a scary thought that technology is no where near where it is actually going.