January 24th Assignment

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

In the video about the modern student by Dr. Michael Wesch, a teacher at Kansas State University, the facts shown were true of most colleges across the United States. Today’s student is both great at multitasking and heavily involved in technology. Cell phones, laptops, iPods, and more are readily available every day. The video shows students that skip classes, do not read their assignments, never open their expensive textbooks, and use facebook or chat through class time. I know a lot of students that fly by the seat of their pants in that way, but I have never been able to take the risk. The 115-student classroom fact was overwhelming to me because I have just transferred to South Alabama from a smaller Christian university, the University of Mobile, this semester. The number of students in a class at the University of Mobile is about 30, sometimes even less, and every teacher knows your name unlike the 18% of teachers in the video. We were not even supposed to bring laptops to class at the private university. I know that I will be adjusting more to the facts of this video in upcoming semesters.

It is very true that most of the things we learn in our education experience, we will never use in every day life. I know that most of my classes, other than my classes in the Education department, I memorize facts for a test and don’t even remember those facts the next week. Most of these classes will not solve our every day problems. They will not solve the problems that the world has in store for the future. I don’t think there is any point that I would add to the video as of now. Maybe once I get used to a larger college experience I will know more and be able to understand the points better.

Kelly Hines

In Kelly Hines’s post ‘It’s Not About the Technology’, she talks about how technology is not all learning in the 21st century is about. At first glance, I was very skeptical of what this blog post was going to say. My thoughts were that technology was what would really upgrade the classroom, but really the upgrade into the 21st century is an effective teacher that loves learning and wants his or her students to love learning. Sure, a teacher can teach and preach boring information all he or she wants to, but a student will never understand what he/she is being told unless the teacher is innovative with the learning experience. The teacher needs proper training in the use of new technology before that teacher can help his/her students will the technology.

Being a teacher these days means being up to date with current tools and technology is what Kelly Hines says in her first point. She says that the teacher cannot just attend mandated workshops and required readings, but must be willing to learn about all new things in the world. The teacher has to be a learner throughout his/her whole career! I think that teachers need to be willing to learn alongside the student. Students can actually teach us many things about technology that most of us don’t even know. Kids pick up things on the Internet or on programs just by exploring them and that is what teachers should be doing as well. Exploration and creativity is what makes learning so much fun. All in all, I think this blog makes the great point that teaching is not about drilling information about technology that we don’t even use. It is about learning about the technology and subjects ourselves and developing a love for learning and creativity.


Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Karl Fisch made some bold statements in his blog, “Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” and I fully agree with those statements. I do not believe a teacher is a successful teacher when he/she is not teaching what the modern student needs to know for the future! I love how Mr. Fisch compared the early 20th century’s reading and writing need growth to the 21st century’s technology need growth. He states, “If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write.” Technology is used everyday in jobs around the world and new technology is available at a quick rate. Teachers need to get acquainted with what their students need to know, so they certainly need to be technology literate.

I am not saying that the use of technology is all that teachers need to focus on these days. That is far from the truth. Karl Fisch says, “Let me be clear, I'm not saying that technology is the end all and be all of education. As I think I've always tried to say, it's just a tool to help us teach and learn and grow - but an indispensable tool.” You can use a mix of modern technology and creativity to teach anything! It is all a matter of taking advantage of the computers and programs there are available. He makes a good point with the fact that technology has been available for years now. There is no good excuse for not learning how to use technology. You have to learn for your students and love the learning process. The students need to be successful in their own time, not successful 30 years ago.

Social Media Count

The Social Media Count created by Gary Hayes is pretty crazy. One thing that shocked me was the fact that people actually spend money on those weird little facebook gifts. I mean really? They are cartoons that your friends will see once or twice. That is just my opinion. None of the other facts about facebook or twitter really shock me that much. I know that a lot of people’s lives revolve around those websites. Facebook gets 600,000 members per day and Twitter gets 18 million new members per year! I really didn’t know that so many people were active on that Second Life game! I only knew about it because I saw it on an episode of ‘The Office’, but people must really spend a lot of time on that website.

Personally I love watching videos on YouTube and I know I spend far too much time on that website. I must not be the only one because it looks like a few thousand videos are being watched per second! According to the statistics underneath the counter, a ton of money is earned and spent on the web every day. All of these facts just show how much modern life is spent in front of some sort of screen.