1 on 1 Computing

I think it's pretty much common sense that a one to one computing program is only as effective as the teacher in charge of it. Obviously there's a lot of things children can learn on computer; an infinite amount of things really, but children, and espeically young children must be guided through the learning by someone more knowledgable than them if we expect them to actually explore things that will use their higher order thinking skills and help them learn. You wouldn't sit a five year old down in front of a math paper and tell him to just teach himself, with no further instruction, so why would any teacher think that they could do that with a computer?

I'd say the biggest thing that struck me with this article is when it talked about one class of seventh graders who'd gotten laptops for every one in class, but by the end of the year didn't even use them anymore. Not only is that sad for financial reasons (laptops are so expensive! how can you spend all that money just to have them gather dust), but mostly because all of those kids are missing out on great learning experiences because their teacher didn't know to integrate the teachnology well enough. I understand that trying to incorporate laptops into the classroom every day would be a challenge, especially if a teacher were used to not having it, but what better excuse to expand your horizons and try new approaches to teaching?

Of course I'm still not sure exactly how I plan to bring technology into my future classroom, especially working with young children like I plan to, but reading this article definately gives me motivation to try and really make my classroom special. I don't want to be a teacher who lets any learning experiences go to waste, especially great opportunities like one on one computers for each of my students.

Social Networking: The New Watering Hole

For my blog this week I read an article called Social Networking--Why are we so afraid? by Sandy Wagner (http://www.techlearning.com/article/social-networking—why-are-we-afraid/45049). In the article she talks about the role of social networking in the youner generations lives, and how the media tends to overexaggerate the dangers assosiated with it. Older generations seem to fear the power of social networking and what their children have access too on the internet, yet she quotes recent statistics that say only eight out of ten thousand students claim they've met an online contact in real life. I feel most young people in this day and age are aware of internet safety and how to keep themselves protected while they connect with people, and more so any responsible parent or school should moniter their internet usage to a certain extent. But that doesn't mean they should completely control it either. As long as a child is aware of what they're doing on the internet and how to use it to gain knowledge, it should be encouraged. The article points out how many high schoolers say they watch the presidental debates online rather than on television, yet still most schools bans streaming video access from their students. Is this fear getting in the way of students really utilizing the tools they have in front of them?

The main point of the article though is that most students claim to use social networking sites as a way to work on and getting a better grasp on schoolwork. Sure, they also chat about what they're going to do over the weekend, or who's dating who, but social networks life Facebook also give them direct access to people in their classes who are doing the same coursework as them. Think about it, how often have you had someone hit you up on facebook, or through email, asking for assignments or notes, or saying they didn't quite get the homework?

More than that, social networking also gives students access to the news, whether it be political, or about some celebrity, or about some scientific study. How many times have you gone through your newsfeed and found a link to something you never would've known have otherwise?

Perhaps this information that we receive through social networking isn't always the most reliable or ground-breaking: people could argue endlessly how meaningless news is nowdays compared to what it used to be. But this was also happening long before the internet, and the world is moving in this direction whether we like it or not. Social networking sites are definately the new Watering Hole, only now we're gathering with countless more people than every before, and gaining much more information than ever before.