Chapter 9: New Schools

In this chapter, it was mentioned how we should be using the same tools in the classroom as at home. In an ideal world, that would be wonderful but in reality, there are parts of the country, or even the world, that may not have the same level of technology the school may have that they have at home, like in low-income schools. I do, however, feel that it is a great goal, for schools to "use new tools to create new models of technology-infused teaching and learning." This is the direction we are moving towards; it only seems logical to move with this "technology movement."

In the future, it would be amazing to have a electronic personal education assistant. In fact, I wouldn't mind having it now! How great would it be to have one that pretty much functions how I shop on Amazon.com. I look at a product, and based on that, it suggests other products I may be interested or products that other people viewed as well after looking at that product. Imagine all the time that has been saved between teacher and student of discovering what the best way for this student to learn. The teacher then is able to focus more on guiding the student and enhance his or her learning even more! Some day, some day....

David Warlick's vision of what a Web 2.0 school should look like would be ideal. The tough part is getting all teachers and staff on board. It does scare me how that if we do not continue to push forward, we will be left behind. This gap of "what is" and "what should be" is holding us back. Teachers are still assigning students to present their work on a display board when they should be presenting their work with technology! How are we preparing our 6th graders into middle school without learning how to make a powerpoint presentation? It's time to move on! I hope that college education programs are now adding this to the curriculum. I know that in my program, we were not taught many tech programs, just the basics with excel, word, powerpoint - pretty much Microsoft office. How nice would it be if we had incoming teachers already equipped with Web 2.0 knowledge?

Again, coming back to reality - time. Time, time, time - teachers and staff members want to know where they can get more of this "time." Yes, it takes time to learn new things, but using these tools personally will not only excite us more to teach it, but we will become more comfortable in using and hopefully more comfortable in embracing new technological changes. I hear many times how "great" teachers have it because they have the summer off. Yes, we have the summer's off from teaching, but guess how I spend my summer, and many other teachers spend their summer? Learning, taking classes, doing what they can to better their ways of teaching. This is where I find my "time" to learn new things....

I noticed a lot of "what if's" in this chapter...what if we could stop buying textbooks? How great would that be! In college, I spend hundreds of dollars each semester and when I went to sell it back at the end, guess what, the company came out with a new edition. How many times has this happened to you? This could also be a way of saving the Earth! No more expensive and heavy textbooks! I vote for this!

That was an interesting article, "Creators in the Classroom" by Jeff Utecht. He stated that students are in a social web - kids want a wider audience than their teacher and their peers. Going back to the basics of teaching, we learned that students do a lot better and try harder in activities and in their work when it is going to be presented to an audience. Nobody wants to be a fool; they want to have pride in their work. Nothing has changed in that concept; it is still the same. Social sites turn our students into creators, Utecht says. Myspace, for example, you can check out the wide variety of options available to "decorate" your "space." Even young teens have figured out where to get these html codes, where to insert them in their profile to create intricuite and dazzling themed pages. They've learned to add songs or even create a playlist on their "space." Young teens have learned how to create slideshows using Rockon, etc. and post them on their "space." This is the world we live in today; why not play upon the knowledge and interests these students? Like Utecht continues to state, "If we want to motivate students to create something, something that will last beyond the classroom and the school year, then we must find ways to use these social-networking tools in the classroom."

David Warlick's article, "Learning From Games," was another one I found interesting. His points on the benefits of games was quite convincing to me! When we examine kids playing games, we really need to "study the experience," pay attention to what they learn from it, not it's graphics of sound. He talks about how the responsiviness of games are to kids - it's what they are in to today. The rewards of games are great - kids want to get to the next level. Not only is it for bragging purposes, but they want to see the new challenges that they are faced with in the next level.

I just wanted to note that Chapter 10 offers tutorials that may be good for people for more tools they can use!