Sunday, September 11, 2011

Blog Post #3


The first assignment was to read Paige Ellis' blog post assignment and watch some peer editing videos. Paige clearly explained on how to do give a quality review without hurting someone's feelings. Added to this was two videos, and they pretty much spell out to the viewer on how to give a quality peer review. They show how to do it by being nice, but also being truthful at the same time.
Paige Ellis' blog assignment was extremely beneficial to me because she showed an example of a conversation she had with Dr. Strange of how she went about giving her peer reviews in a nice, respectable way. The videos and powerpoint helped some with the peer review, and the main thing that I liked about it was that it showed how to help without being a "jerk".
The next assignment was "It's not about the Technology" by Kelly Hines. In this she explains that its not just about all of the technology in the classroom. The way I understood it is that she talks about all of the money that schools spend on the smart boards and how they are no good if teachers do not put them to good use. She also talks about how teachers have to be lifetime learners and they should never stop learning. Another thing she also points out is that teaching is different from learning.
The first thing I would like to say about Kelly Hines "It's not about the Technology" is that I could not agree more with what she had to say. She talks about how we have all these great tools to use in today's society, but that does not make a great teacher. One thing that it certainly does though is it aids a teacher to be that much more influential in a students academic life. Another subject that really reached out to me is how she mentioned that teachers must be lifetime learners, and as a future teacher I think that is very crucial because we cannot be stubborn and not learn the latest things. If we do learn, as educators we can reach out to the younger crowd and turn them on to learning.
The next assignment was Karl Fisch: "Is it okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?". In this award winning post Fisch talks about how it doesn't make any sense for a teacher today to be technologically illiterate. He points out with all of the technology we have in "exponential times" we as teachers would be dumb to not take advantage of what is laid out in front of us. He says that as time goes on we need to make computers more a part of everyones life because in todays society computers are needed in just about every single job.
The first thing that I would like to say about Fisch's post is that I agree with the fact that we as human beings need to be familiar with computers for the job market. When was the last time that you saw a place of business not using a computer? Exactly. We as a human race need computers for many things, to teach, learn, stay organized, ect. It has become a part of everyday life for the very strong majority of people in this country and as educators it only makes sense to use computers to use it to our advantage.
The next thing that was assigned is to view Gary Hayes Social Media Count. I literally was in shock when I opened the link to view this page. I was in shock at all of the the people that were using different types of social websites and things being purchased and downloads. I sat and stared at this page and watched the numbers skyrocket the entire time with no letting up.
It was shocking to me to see all of that, especially the tweets and facebook posts. Then I sat and thought about it and it really did not shock me at all. If you have some friends like mine that posts every two minutes it makes sense that all of those numbers are achievable. I guess what this really made me realize was that the world has really shifted to a more technologically savvy one, and we as humans must keep up.
The last assignment for this blog was "A Vision of Students Today" by Michael Wesch. In this eerie video it never speaks but it shows exactly how students today think. The main thing that stuck out to me was that if a student does everything needed of them then they will spend 26.5 hours a day doing the various tasks, and there is literally not enough hours in the day for all of that. Another thing that it mentions is that students today will probably have a job that doesn't even exist yet.
In this video Wesch does a good job of reeling the viewer in to really pay attention to the point he is trying to get across. The main thing that popped out at me is that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done, and as a student really stresses me out because that means I have to manage my time even better. That is a crucial part of being a student is time management. It also shows how technology is very important to everyday life and the fact that we need it in our everyday life.

2 comments:

  1. Good job! We are all indeed life long learners.
    "It also shows how technology is very important to everyday life and the fact that we need it in our everyday life." Have you ever gone 24 hours with out technology? Do you think you could? This might be a future EDM assignment!!

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  2. Tyler,

    I like how you pointed out that you can usually find a computer at any work place. It is true that we rely heavily on computers in this day and age. Do you remember when Dr. Strange mentioned that most schools will not hire a new teacher who is not technologically literate? That just proves how incredibly important it is to learn how to use technology correctly. Of course, as you pointed out, as future educators it is our job to be life-long learners. If we want to teach our students, we cannot use outdated teaching methods.

    I have one suggestion for your blog posts. At times it was confusing to differentiate which paragraphs were describing the specific sites we were assigned to write about. I suggest that in the future you space the paragraphs out or label the paragraphs with the title of assignment you are describing. It will make it easier for everyone to read in the future. Your post was very well done! I enjoyed what you had to say.

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