July 12th Class

January 12, 2010

Today's class was very thought-provoking and interesting. I cannot help but wonder what the perfect balance is between utilizing technology in the classroom and teaching the required standards. I guess another question to consider is what is the perfect balance between preparing students for the state-mandated test or preparing them to be a contributing member of the workforce. At China Spring Intermediate my students have many opportunities to utilize technology on a daily basis; but in retrospect I believe we may not be preparing them for the Web 2.0 world. We have mobile labs, multiple computer labs, and wireless Internet throughout the campus, but we are not capturing our technology's full potential. We need to enhance our students' understanding of multiple avenues of technology and equip them with the necessary skills to be competitive in the global market place. We need to move away from the 20th century ways of thinking about technology and embrace Web 2.0 and all it has to offer. Currently our students exposure to technology consists of activities such as practicing keyboarding skills through Mavis Beacon or simply writing an essay using Microsoft Word.

I believe it is time that we start using our mobile lab to connect to other classrooms across the world and begin collaborating with students from different countries. I have briefly looked into the programs that foster collaboration amongst different schools. One promising option I have found is epals. Epals has recently created a partnership with Microsoft that I believe will be an excellent resource to teachers and students across the globe. I cannot wait for my technology teacher to get back from summer vacation to share this exciting possibility with her. If she can get familiarized with the product before schools starts and feels comfortable enough to give support to my teachers, then I can see this program taking off at our school. This portion of the blog refers directly to the communication cognate of the Baylor's Technology Framework.


The following paragraph applies to both the data/computer and communication framework of the Baylor's technology framework.

In closing, I would like to briefly discuss Bush's article "As We May Think". It was amazing to see how futuristic his thoughts were regarding photography, data storage, and voice recognition devices etc. He was clearly a product of what collaboration between our country's most brilliant minds can produce. Thanks to Bush and other great minds, we are still have the freedom to collaborate in the emerging Web 2.0 environment. Can you imagine what the world would look like today if Germany or Japan would have developed a nuclear bomb before the United States? Thanks to the guys pictured below, and several other great Americans, this did not become a reality.
A 1940 meeting at Berkeley with (from left to right) Ernest O. Lawrence, Arthur H. Compton, Bush, James B. Conant, Karl T. Compton, and Alfred L. Loomis