The Seeds of a New System of Education

The classroom is primarily where schooling occurs. However, there are many new phenomenons that are developing that some believe evetually will have a bigger impact on schooling in the classroom. For instance, home schooling is prevalent now a days. Children are being educated at home by their parents. And, they have found that students who are home schooled achieve significantly higher test scores on standarized tests, which I was a bit surprised to learn this. Also, distance education is another very popular avenue for schooling. The virtual courses are very popular with college students, and it is said that soon virtual course will be used a large amount in high schools. In my opinion, I do not believe that the virtual courses are the most effective way to educate people. I think these virtual courses are impersonal and to me, learning is more effective when it is more personal. Just as an example, my sister is a freshman in college and took an online public speaking course. I think it is ridiculous to have an online course for a class like public speaking. It completely defeats the purpose of the course. However, I know there are pros to virtual courses ecspecially for people who may work full-time or have other conflicting time issues, or have a child. In addition, learning centers I view as a very positive, beneficial educational resource outside of the classroom. Leanring centers, like Sylvan, allow people to be tutored on topics that they do not know well and reinforce what they have learned.
One thing I want to mention was how the book stated that many adults return to schools to further their education, while others use the internet to gain new knowledge and learn about things that interest them. And, yes, I think it great to have access to internet at anytime; however, I hope that in the long run the internet is not solely relied on for education. I agree that we need to be life long learners and learn through other venues than the classroom, but I hope that all of these newly developing venues never discard the classroom. Even though the book states that they will not, no one knows what lies ahead in our future and I believe anything is a possibility.

Exit Slip

Today, the presentation done on chapter four was very informative and reinforced everything that I learned. When I read the chapter, I was a little overwhelmed with all the movements that we have experienced throughout history. The video they started their presentation with allowed me to tie everything that I read together. The small group activity was very beneficial to me because I was able to hear other peoples perspective on positives, negatives, and major implications of each change in history.
Also, Jeff's tutorial on audacity and garage-band I assume will be very helpful when I begin producing my podcast. I was very surprised how easy it is to make a podcast. It involves a lot of dragging and dropping, which I do not think will be very difficult.
The contemporary issue presentations addressed today were interesting topics that I was familiar with prior to their presentations. I enjoyed the topic about virtual field trips and the virtual courses, and I feel more compelled towards these topics. Virtual field trips are cool and I will use those in my classrooms in the future as an educator. However, some virtual courses that are offered seem to be ineffective to me. For instance, my sister took a public speaking virtual course, which to me just seemed counteractive to the purpose of that course.

The development of American schooling

This chapter, which discussed the cycle of revolution in our educational system, provided a clear description of how our education system came to be. Prior to reading this chapter, I did not know much about how the printing press led to the reformation and so on. One specific topic discussed in this chapter that stood out to me was while the shift in the education system was occuring, the property owners or farmers opposed the shift. The land owning farmers adimantly believed that the reason for education was to educate children only to prepare chidlren for a successful life on the farm. They believed that since that is what they will spend the rest of their lives doing, then that is all they need to be taught. Later, the belief that education occurs in school became prevalent.
The farmers opinion stood out to me. In my opinion, their perspective on education was logical, however, it was a bit niave. The farmers perspective reminded me of my, recently diminishing, opinion on how technology does not need to be incorporated into the classrooms. My perspective and the farmers perspective does not allow people to move foward and change for the better. And, if the farmers never looked past their perspective the education system could be very different today. So, this statement made me rethink the importance of technology's role in the classroom, and how I will not let my opinion come in the middle of a possibly very beneficial change.

Exit Slip

Today, the second group presented on the material in chapter three. The tool that the group used was Glogster.com, which was a visually appealing presentation site. So, this is another resource I have added to my delicious page. Also, even though I am not an enthusiast, many of the skeptic's arguments I disagree with. Like I said in my last blog, the discussion on what computers cant teach and the authority and teaching issues is hard for me to agree with. Hearing other classmates perspectives gives me a new insight, which was beneficial.
Also, Jeff informed the majorityof the class, including me, on who Jefferson Davis was, which he was the president of the confederate states. Also, the contemporary issue presentations were issues that I had never really been introduced to prior to the presentations today. Anna's issue, which was incorporating 3-D technologies in the classroom. Personally, I am skeptical to incorporate this in my future classroom, however, I do see how it could be beneficial. Also, Bree-Anna's issue on microchipping was interesting. I definetly do not see this as a natural process, but it is obviously something that people are starting to consider.
3-d in classroom

Skeptic's Argument

Towards the beginning of this class, my perspective of integrating technology into our school system aligned with the skeptics' argument. However, after discussing this topic with peers and reading several points that the skeptics argued, my opinon has changed. I do agree that the reason our school system has yet to change is because there are many barriers that are not allowing this change to occur in our schools. Many people are still hanging on to the more traditional approach to learning and teaching practices. Also, money is a major reason that technology has not been fully integrated in our schools, ecspecially in the economic crisis we are in now. However, there are many points that the skeptics argue that I view as naive and incorrect. First, the skeptics mentioned that classroom management becomes an issue when computers are added to the classroom. I disgaree with this because whether we have computers in our classrooms or not, children can and will distract themselves in other ways. It is our job as teachers to keep our students engaged and control management issues. Also, the statement made under what computers can't teach I consider to be a very naive statement. Clearly, integrating computers in our classrooms will not teach everything to our students. Our expectations for computers do not inlcude teaching daily life skills, in regards to not pushing, cleaning up your mess, etc. Computers will be used to enhance student's learning.
Now that I am aware of all the reasons for skepticism in integrating technology in our classroom, I will remain aware of these issues in my future. In the back of my mind I will keep the fact that technology can undermine teachers authority, even though I do not necessarily agree with that, the different challeneges to instruction, and how technology can interfere with classroom management. I believe that the only thing I can do with the skpetics' argument is always keep it in the back of my mind to consider from time to time.

Exit Slip

Everything discussed today reinforced everything that I read in chapter two. The group presentation done by Kellie, Paige, and Courtney allowed me to reflectively think about the enthusiasts argument. The video really tied everything together very well. Also, the quotes they used were very informative and touched upon the most conversational topics. My opinion about integrating technology into our classrooms continuously goes back and forth. I agree with all the comments that were made about mantaining a balance of implementing the traditional approach to teaching and integrating technology into our classrooms.
Also, I enjoyed practicing to write on the active board. I have never used a digital whiteboard or any other type of technology to use in the classroom. In addition, the homework assignment about how to find if a website is credible or not was a little difficult for me. When Jeff explained the triangulation, which means to check the information you found on one website with a few other resources to validate the information is accurate was valuable to me. During the assignment I struggled to figure out how to determine the credibility of a website, so the triangulation will be beneficial to me when I am teaching young children how to explore the internet.