Blog Assignment #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?-When I first read this post I was confused. At first I did not know if it was serious or not, but then I picked up on the sarcastic vibe. I agreed with what Dr. McLeod. We have to omit what people are saying about how technology is not useful because it is the present and future of our world. this is exactly why we have to teach with techonology and expect for children to use technology. There are more advantages than we can imagine with using technology. To be an effective teacher, I feel that there is no way to get around using technology. Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor of Educational Administration at Iowa State University. He is also the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education. Mr. McLeod is the co-created of Did You Know? videos.

Lost Generation- I really liked this video. At first I thought it was depressing. I thought it was over until when the narrator started reading again. It took me a while to catch on that she was just reading the lines backwards. My attitude altered after that. I thought that this video stressed the importance of making our own decisions and our happiness being in our own hands. It means to me that you do not have to be a statistic or follow those statistics, but be your own person. The technique was very captivating. It can really have an impact on your overall attitude.
The iSchool Initiative- Was this person really seventeen?? That's amazing and I am in awe. I was very impressed by the proposal. I think this idea of iSchool is totally awesome and I think it would be successful in school systems with students and teachers for a lot of different reasons. It could save us from buying a lot of supplies for school. I honestly would take this iSchool proposal seriously and try and get this idea incorporated into the school system. The argument Travis makes in this video is that there is no real need for "paper and pencil" learning in the classroom. Effective communication can be made through ischool. There are already many ways for learning on the itouch. Travis states that its beneficial for not only students, but for teachers. After looking at what already is available, Travis proposes some new ideas that he has for learning, such as lunch menu applications. He also proposes some grade tracking implication that could be very useful. I think ischool could really be useful in our school system.

Eric Whitaker's Virtual Choir- I was intrigues by this video and I don't beleive I could have ever thought of something like this. The internet is truly amazing and its mind-blowing to see all that it can really do. It is cool to think that all of the members of the choir who could most certainly be from all around the nation or the world and can meet through the internet and sing together. It is just so amazing that these choir members have never met and don't even know each other but have practiced and performed with each other over the internet. It just makes me smile and nod my head at how amazing technology is.