Week 13, exit slip. What I learned in class today...

In today's class we talked about the final two chapters from our book, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. Destiny, Latarra, and Lorin presented chapter 9, What does it all mean? They showed us a video about video games arguing that they are the best technological teaching tool that we have since students are the active player and decision maker in them, making these situations a "virtual reality". We discussed whether this is really applicable for early childhood students. Educators of young students know that hands on experiences are vital for early learners to really experience and learn from their environments. Video games can be helpful and can serve as a tool for teaching young children depending on the game that is used and how children are supported by adults while playing them. Like many of the other technologies that were emphasized in the textbook, this is geared more towards older students so we need to think about how it can be used in early childhood.

There are two changes with technology: First, the generation gap; and second, a changing workplace. Students today are much more comfortable and familiar with technologies than older adults. Playing with children and engaging in technologies (such as video games) is a way for parents to help bridge this gap. We discussed this a bit and a decided that it might not be effective to just begin playing games, adults should be more active in their approach. Asking questions and facilitating discussion may be helpful but it also may cause the child to loose interest or may stop them from having fun with the game. Latarra pointed out that many times its hard enough for parents to even read with their children, and putting all of the responsibility on the parents to get involved with video games is unreasonable. Encouraging students to join an online community is another way for parents to get involved. Its a way for them to encourage students to explore, share, and learn about interests through social online communities. We discussed this in depth noticing that it may be unsafe and can open up access to unwanted information. There would have to be active monitoring by teachers and parents, but the social connection and learner's interests are important to have.

Changes in the workplace involved the new "gamer generation" where there will be a more virtually stimulated environment. We talked about what careers have been changed with technology, and what careers might be changed in the future by the technological revolution. In my group we discussed how customer service jobs have changed in that there are more simulations of interacting with customers to prepare for similar situations. We talked about how other jobs such as teaching, medical professions, and many others will be changed. In many careers, the function has not changed, but technologies have made these functions easier and more efficient.

In terms of social life and learning, peer culture and entertainment technologies have changed education. Peer culture has changed as a result of technologies that are aimed towards that generation (ipods, hand held games, etc). Students have begun to view school more as an arena for socialization rather than learning.

We discussed several implications these issues will have on education, including: technology to supplement learning, funding concerns, and a technology rich education system. In terms of funding, there is a need for equal access for all schools and students even in low-income areas. Younger students especially have less access to technologies since many may view early childhood as an age group that will not benefit from technology the same as older students.

Anna, Bree-Anna, and Whitney discussed chapter 10, "Rethinking Education in a Technological World", the final chapter of our book. We discussed rethinking learning and talked about what WE think learning should look like. Next, we talked about rethinking motivation and pointed out the disturbing fact that many students only learn in order to obtain a grade. Individualizing education, catering to interests, making learning relevant, hands-on, an inquiry approach, using a variety of materials and approaches, etc. are all ways to change teaching so that students learn to be intrinsically motivated. Another point is to rethink what is important to learn and the authors suggest that this should be determined by the students' interests. A special emphasis is placed on communication and mathematics and how these areas of learning can be facilitated through technology. Jeanee suggested that students should be taught "how to learn" and I agree with this. I think that is part of being a life long learning and having the intrinsic motivation to learn.

Also, we must rethink careers since many are focused on the use of technological resources. Many skills are needed to interact in careers that were not in previous generations that involve access to technology. Rethinking transitions refers to moving from school to work and the authors argue that this is not properly facilitate in our current system like it was in the apprentice approach. We discussed ways we, as teachers, can help students during this time. Its hard to think of ways to do this in early childhood since it is so far away from that time. But little things like having "career days" and letting students explore special interests that might influence their careers in the future would be beneficial. Next, we talked about rethinking educational leadership. Horace Mann was a previous leader in education, but now that that system is becoming outdated it is necessary to find a new leading view on education. This person or resource could help facilitate the transition into the technological age. It is difficult to think of one person who could take on this role since so much responsibility is required, especially in our current obsession with accountability in the government. I do agree that it would be helpful to have an individual in the school who is knowledgeable of all of the changes that are occurring and ways to facilitate that change with technology. Teachers should be given more opportunities to learn about technology and even specialize in this area. Finally, rethinking the role of government in education is probably the most controversial issue that is discussed in the chapter. Currently, state and local governments are in charge but the chapter suggests we give the responsibility back to the federal government. It is true that education can become more equalized in terms of curriculum, standards, and funding, but will it give the federal government too much power? Educators would be separated even further from policy making since politicians will be deciding everything.

We talked about the closing of our book and its impact. Jeff asked the question "Are you a lifelong learner?" and discussed how a large amount of the population is not open to try new things, explore new ideas, etc. Evaluate yourself! If you yourself are not a lifelong learner, you can't teach others to be one. In terms of educational leadership, Jeff talked about how it should be the TEACHER who is an agent of change in the school or district. Chapter 10's group did a final assessment asking if we were technology enthusiasts or not on a scale of 1-5 just like we did in the beginning of this course. Jeff discussed how education is one of the only fields that still contemplates this question.

Contemporary issues presentations:
Stephanie presented The Sum of All Thrills at Disney theme park attraction that will encourage kids to use math and engineering skills. This is a great motivator for kids, Disney has it all!
Kim presented her issue which is the effects of technology on social interactions. We talked about many disturbing cases in which students get overly bored and irritated if they are deprived of their electronics and have to be forced to play outside. Like all things, there needs to be a balance in the lives of our children.
Angela talked about math anxiety and how that can be passed on by teachers, especially for females. Technology can be a helpful tool to overcome this anxiety that may occur. It is disturbing that female teachers who outwardly portray their anxiety with math can be internalized by female students. Teachers have to be careful about the attitudes that they convey to their students.
Kat's issue was about how students can or cannot be successful using search engines. She shared some interesting information about girls vs. boys and how they felt about their searches. Girls don't give up as fast, but they view it as their fault and boys give up more quickly, but do not view it as their problem (typical). Its interesting because we all assume that everyone is born with this skill, but that is untrue and even I am inefficient sometimes.
Lauren presented the issue of text messaging and how it can effect student writing. Many students use the same abbreviated slang language that the use in texting that they use in academic writing. This is an important issue and I have seen this in high school classrooms. Jeff talked about how its important for teachers to set expectations for student writing in order to avoid this. But, the population determines language and it is constantly evolving. If 90% of people decide that 'your' will be spelled 'ur' then it will change. Teacher react negatively to this, but linguists feel the opposite since they are witnessing a language revolution.

Cool tools presentations:
Destiny showed us drawanywhere.com where you can construct diagrams and collaborate online while saving them as a pdf file. I really like this site and immediately see potentials for use, especially for our thematic unit for Dr. Kemple's class.
Liz demonstrated googlelittrips.com which is a literacy and reading site that gives a picture walk for popular books. This might be used more for older children, but could be used in early childhood classrooms.
Lauren showed us flickr.com which is a place to upload and share photos online. I've heard of this site before and have a lot of friends who use it, though I never have. It can be used by teachers to share pictures with parents or other professionals. In the past I have used photobucket and snapfish, so this is another similar resource.
Kat shared gabbly.com which is a chat room creator for anything. Private chatrooms can be made where you can make a password and topic and chat in a more secure environment. I can see this being used in the classroom with older kids for discussions or homework help. There is great potential for collaborative work for me and other group members to use when trying to work together while in different places.

Jeff showed us a quick demonstration and gave an introduction to screencasting which is a component of our inquiry wiki. We are to use Jing to create a video of our screen to share with the class. It allows us to capture a video of a selected portion of our screens when they are on the wiki page. While recording the video we will dictate information about our inquiry projects to go along with the view of the screen.