Blog Post 3

In It's Not about the Technology, Kelly Hines discusses the problem with the assumption that brand new technology automatically produces better teachers. She makes several great points about spending a great deal of money on technology for schools can be a waste because they turn into "game systems and word processors," in the wrong hands. She also makes a point to say that many great learning opportunities are available for students that require little or no technology.

I thought Ms. Hine's article made some excellent points. I wholeheartedly agree with the fact that technology is not a necessity for good teaching and learning to take place. In an earlier post I made a statement that a lack of funding for technology was the root of the problem; however, I have changed my opinion about that now. I believe now that it is the misuse of technology that causes a waste of the funds that are available.

The Fischbowl has some very strong opinions on the current state of teacher qualifications. Karl Fisch equates technological illiteracy in the 21st century to actual illiteracy in the beginning of the 20th century. He also discusses how many teachers are proud to be technologically illiterate despite a rapidly changing educational landscape.

I had several problems with this article and basically found it to be a little ridiculous. First of all, I do not know a single person who is proud to be truly technologically illiterate. Almost every person who is in school now to become an educator knows the basics of most technology, and those who don't, are generally willing to learn. The most outlandish statement Mr. Fisch made was when he talked about the similarities of the two illiteracies. I would love to see the facts that tell how exactly people were able to be successful in the middle of the 20th century without being able to read or write. I understand that technological illiteracy could cause some problems in the future, but comparing these two is ludicrous.

The Social Media Count is a very interesting site that shows an estimation of an up to the minute count of many different social networking sites. It shows the number of Tweets, Facebook posts, and many other other networking tools, that have occurred since logging on to the site.

I thought this was a pretty fascinating site that really puts the magnitude of social networking into perspective. The number of posts on all of these sights every second is mind-boggling; however, I don't really see much of a correlation between the numbers on the sight and teaching methods. It is an interesting tool, but most future teachers are already on Facebook and other social networking sites.

A Vision of Students today is a video that was created by a class from Kansas State that discusses many of the same things we talked about in the class survey from the beginning of class. It shows how students in todays classrooms face many challenges that are completely different from even the generation before us.

Our generation is bombarded with a great deal of information and technology that is relatively new, but the profession we have chosen is not that different than it has been in the past. There may be far more technology and methods for delivering information to students, but a good teacher is a good teacher. Caring about young people's education and truly striving to help students learn is far more important than any method of dispensing information.