Week 3 - Task 1 - Get with the times...or be left behind?

I really enjoyed the videos we had to watch for this week's blog assignments as well as the overall tone of the videos.  I believe that the videos portray how schools districts are being forced to integrate technology in our classrooms.  Now I agree that technology is a vital part of our classrooms in the 21st century but what extent is integrated I believe is still for individual teacher to decide.  Now my heart went out to the English teacher at Chatham High School and that the new technology made her feel like a "dinosaur.", but I believe that she should make some effort to integrate any type of technology into her classroom.  Refusing to use the technology around you as it progresses doesn't work in the business world, why should it work in the classroom.  Imagine if a reporter refused to use a computer and still wrote his articles on a typewriter - he would never be able to make the deadlines expected of reporters today.

However, I don't believe that technology should be replacing our teachers completely.  If spark notes is used to interpret a book and summarize it, how is a student supposed to learn those skills that allowed the spark notes author to write?  So when the history teacher said "What is cheating and what isn't cheating" I believe it is up to the teachers to define what is cheating.  Show that getting someone else's material and claiming it as your own interpretation is plagiarism and is cheating.  However, the responsibility is on the teacher.  If you notice your students are using a tool like spark notes and not reading the material, make sure a few of your questions cannot be found on spark notes.  Try to make yourself available to the same tools that your students are using and use them to your own advantage.

In response to how I plan on developing with technology, one part of the Chatham School video really stood out with me, and that is the use of PODCASTS.  I truly embraced this notion of using a podcast to make my lessons available to my students.  This concept is one of many ways a teacher could make his/her knowledge accessible to his/her students outside of the classroom setting.  As for what I look for in terms of technology when looking for a position, I am not truly picky as I currently work at a school where my books are over a decade old and I feel lucky to have whiteboard.  But if I had to make a request, it would be that my classroom had a smart board or at the very least an overhead projector so that I could present my lessons in power-point form which would save me time during my class period that is usually wasted writing my notes on the board.  I would prefer the smart board so I could interact with my slides on a regular basis.  I feel that the interactive nature of a classroom does allow for a more "meaningful" atmosphere as shown in the 2nd video.  If our students aren't doing meaningful work, then what is the point in assigning that work in the first place?  We should use every tool available to us to make sure that our students truly appreciate and enjoy the knowledge we are sharing with them.  TASK II COMING SOON!