Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Blog Assignment 7

This says Symbaloo.
The Networked Student
After watching The Networked Student, I was in awe of all the technology used by the student described in the video.  He had a very advanced personal learning network that he could use to easily find information on whatever he needed.  All this technology seemed a little bit overwhelming to me.  It is hard to imagine being a teacher who just basically coaches the students into finding information on their own.  I guess that is a good way to look at teaching though.  If you can teach someone how to do something, they are set for life.  It is kind of like the difference between buying someone a meal and teaching them to cook.  Buying the meal is instant gratification while the cooking is more hard work.  However, learning to cook will help you prepare many meals in the future.

I am not sure if I am ready to be a teacher of the networked student.  As I said earlier, it seems like a great idea, but this is a completely different image of a teacher from what I had in my head.  I thought of teaching as making students understand things such as reading, comprehending, and analyzing.  I plan to be an English teacher, so it is hard for me to imagine letting my students use an advanced learning network like the one shown in the video.  Yes, the internet might be good for finding sources for papers, but with English, I think too much technology might lead to unoriginal ideas.  It would be very simple for a student to google an analysis of a story instead of interpreting it on his/her own.

Overall, I find this type of networking in the classroom a little bit scary.  I was getting a little confused when the narrator was telling all the things the student did.  I think this type of learning would be great in certain fields of study like science, but for my purposes, I just do not believe I would want to use anything this advanced.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment
After watching A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment, I was really inspired to make my PLN like hers.  Everything on he page was so organized and detailed.  Truly, I watched this video when I was creating my PLN.  It helped a lot to see all the cool things you can do when you have information grouped together.  I really liked how she could save certain exerts from different articles.  This would make research a lot easier than printing everything.

Project 10 (Post 1)

This is a sample PLN.
My First PLN Post 
For my PLN, I am using Symbaloo.  Symbaloo is very easy to use; I added all my favorite websites very quickly.  Some of the websites I have included so far are Facebook, Google, Youtube, Twitter, and Pandora.  My PLN is not very advanced right now, but I am continuing to work on it.  I hope to get mine to look like A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment.

Project 9b

Monday, February 27, 2012

Blog Assignment 6

This says learn.
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
After watching this video, I find myself thinking how truly inspirational this man was.  I almost cried at the end when he brought out the birthday cake for his wife.  This said a lot about him as a person.  He was truly selfless and always wanted to help others.  I learned so many things from this video.  The big idea in Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was to be optimistic.  Pretty much everything he said ties back to this.  This is a great thing to remember as a teacher.  He says, "give people time and they will impress you."  You cannot just give up on a student just because you think they will never learn.  This reminds me of The Freedom Writers Diary.  The freedom writers were children who had the world against them, but with a little support, they achieved their dreams.

Teach your students to never give up.  "Brick walls let you know how bad you want something."  Just because things seem hard or impossible, it does not mean you cannot achieve.  Our job as teachers is to get kids to believe in themselves.  We have to be their critics and their allies.  If you help a child with their mistakes, it means you care.  If a child learns how to keep improving, the belief in themselves will come naturally.  We all have had experienced that have helped us grow.  These experiences may have not been the best, but they helped us in the long-run.

As a teacher, if you mess up, let your students know.  Apologize.  What better way is there to be a role model?  If students see you trying to be cold and perfect all the time, they will never relate with you.  You have to get on their level.  That means showing that you are human.  Being human will also help your students take feedback better.  If they know everyone makes mistakes, even the teacher, it will be easier for them to realize and correct their mistakes.  They also will not feel so bad when they mess up.

Let the kids have fun learning.  Do not make every task so structured that the students cannot let their imaginations run free.  Let them come up with their own ideas.  It will make them better people.  No one wants to work with someone who has no ideas.  Students with no ideas are the products of their learning environment.  If you have always been spoon-fed information, it is hard for you to learn on your own.  As teachers, we should make learning fun and student-based so children will learn material as well as life lessons.

Project 7-1

This is a group of children in a circle.
Week 1
The first week of comments for kids, I was assigned Mao T's blog.  Mao is in the fourth grade at PT England School in Auckland, New Zealand.  His teacher's name is Miss Walters.  I commented on Mao's first blog post. He was excited to have a new blog, but he had blogged before.  This was my comment:

Hello Mao,
My name is Susie Salter, and I am currently a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.  I just started my very first blog for a class I am taking at school. I see that you have had blogs before, and I think that is so great! It is so good that you are learning so much about technology! You probably know more about it than I do! Do you enjoy keeping a blog? I am very glad I got to "meet" you!
Sincerely,
Susie Salter

Week 2
For week two, I was assigned Skye's blog.  Skye is in the fourth grade at Leopold Primary School in Victoria, Australia.  Her teacher is Miss Kelly Jordan.  I commented on Skye's blog post about Christmas.  She told about singing Christmas carols and about what she wanted for Christmas.  She also asked what color your Christmas tree was and what your Christmas list was.  This was my original comment to Skye:

Hello Skye,
My name is Susie Salter, and I go to college at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I really enjoyed your post about Christmas. I think it was so brave of you to sing Christmas carols in public. I would have been scared to do that.
My Christmas tree was green with all types of ornaments on it that my family has collected over the years.
My Christmas wish list was very long! I love clothes and fashion, so I wanted a lot of new clothes, shoes, and accessories.
I loved your video. It really captured the spirit of Christmas! I hope you had a great holiday and are doing well now! It was very nice to “meet” you.
Sincerely,
Susie Salter
P.S. I love your name. It is so pretty!

Skye and I have continued to have a conversation with each other over the past few weeks. She is a great little girl, and I am enjoying being her "blogging buddy."

Week 3
In week 3, I was assigned Eric S's blog.  Eric is in the fifth grade in British Columbia, Canada.  His teacher is Ms. Eppele.  I commented on Eric's blog about sportsmanship.  He basically said that sportsmanship was about being nice to your teammates and other players no matter what.  This was my comment:

Hey Eric!
My name is Susie Salter, and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I totally agree with your ideas about sportsmanship. It is always good to have a good attitude when playing any type of sport. If you act mean towards others, it just reflects badly on you. Do you play any sports? It was nice to “meet” you.
Sincerely,
Susie Salter

Week 4
In week four, I was assigned a student's blog in Iowa.  This student is in the fifth grade, and his/her teacher is Mrs. T. G..  The blog post I commented on was basically how the child loved music.  This was my comment:

Hello,
My name is Susie Salter, and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.  I also like to hear music. I listen to it every day when I am driving in my car. I like to sing along, too. Do you like to sing along with music?
Sincerely,
Susie

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Blog Assignment 5

This is a baby on a laptop computer.
Scott Mcleod
Scott Mcleod is a really interesting person.  I found out more about him at About Me: Scott Mcleod.  He is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky.  "He also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). He has received numerous national awards for his technology leadership work, including recognitions from the cable industry, Phi Delta Kappa, the National School Boards Association, and the Center for Digital Education. In Spring 2011 he was a Visiting Canterbury Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Dr. McLeod blogs regularly about technology leadership issues at Dangerously IrrelevantMind Dump, and Education Recoded and occasionally at The Huffington Post. He also just completed his first book, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media."


Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please? was a really good article to get you thinking about technology.  In this poem, Dr. Mcleod basically describes all of parents' fears about their children using the internet.  He then tells these parents to not let the children use the internet because that will give his children an advantage.  This was really a smart and concise way to get his point across.  I liked the way he brought up all the issues people have with technology.  Yes, the internet is a great resource, but it should be used appropriately.  It can get you into trouble just like anything else can, but the fact is that people have to know how to use the computer if they want to survive in the world.

The comments by some students in EDM 310 in the spring 11 semester  were really interesting to me.  These students had some of the same views I have about the internet.  Most of the students agreed that knowing how to use the internet is a must, but they still wanted children's usage monitored.  Monitoring a child's use of the computer or anything else can have good and bad effects.  This monitoring may keep the child away from bad things, but it could also make the child want to view/do the bad things more.  I know that if someone tells me I can't do something, I just want to do it more.  It might be better to just let children explore the internet.  If we don't make a big deal about the bad things, they may not worry about them either.  Dr. Mcleod also brought up the point that most parents don't know as much about the internet as their children.  If the parents don't know the dangers of the internet, they can't talk to their children about the dangers.

The iSchool Initiative
The iSchool Initiative is a video by Travis Allen.  He was 17 when he first launched this video on Youtube.  In this video, Travis is basically arguing that schools would save more money if they stopped using old methods of teaching.  He calculated that it costs around $600 per student to teach in the traditional way.  Travis wanted to change this.  He said that if schools used the iTouch for instruction, they would save around $450 per student.  He showed in his powerpoint that everything school-related could be done on the iTouch.  After this video was released, it went viral.  A lot of important people were interested in Travis's ideas.  He talks about his success in ZeitgeistYoungMind's Entry.

I was really impressed by Travis's ideas.  If everything worked out the way he said it would in the video, changing over to the iTouch would be a great idea; however, there are a few things about which I am concerned.  First of all, theft would have to be a concern.  If this program was used at some underprivileged high schools, a lot of the devices would go missing.  I remember when students were allowed to use school laptops during summer school where my Mom works.  Half of the laptops went missing and were never retrieved.  Another problem I have with using the iTouch is that it is so small.  It might hurt students' eyesight to look at that small screen for every activity.  The iPad might be a better alternative, but it would not save as much money.

Jennifer Chambers
I thought Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir was really cool.  It is amazing to think that 185 people who never met performed this.  I guess sometimes we take technology for granted.  If we could transport someone from the 19th century into 2012, they would be amazed.  They would probably think the internet was some sort of witchcraft.  They would not even be able to understand how advanced our technology is.  It would probably scare the crap out of them.  The only other thing I can say about this video is that it sounded so perfect that I automatically assumed it was seriously synthesized.  That is just me being critical though.

Teaching in the 21st Century
In Teaching in the 21st Century, Kevin Roberts has a different view on teaching.  He basically thinks that teachers should be guidance for children.  They should let the students figure things out on their own.  You can find out anything you want to know just by googling it.  Why do we even need teachers?  Without teachers, students would not have the knowledge to go search for knowledge.  They also would not know how to act properly when it comes to using things like the internet.

Roberts has a point.  Yes, students can find out anything they want just by googling it, but they don't learn anything.  You have to understand information to be able to remember it.  When you google something, you just want a quick answer.  Understanding information is beyond just technology.  I thought that the goal of teaching has always been to make students understand things so they can apply them in other situations.  I don't think this video changed my impression of teaching at all.  I already knew that you couldn't just let kids memorize things.  I know I will also have to be technology conscious, but that does not change my overall teaching goal.

Reading Rockets
After viewing Reading Rockets, I found a lot of tools I could use as a teacher.  This site was especially interesting to me since I am going to be an English teacher.  One thing that stood out to me was "Reading for Meaning."  This resource basically gives you tips on how to make sure a child understands what they are reading.  I think reading comprehension is one of the biggest problems in schools.  If you can't understand what you read, there is no point in reading at all.  This resource will prove helpful to me because I have never had problems with reading.  I am not sure how I would help a student with something I know nothing about.

Another resource I found interesting on the site was "ABCs of Teaching Reading."  Even though I plan on teaching high school, this resource will surely prove helpful.  A lot of students still do not know how to read properly when they get to high school. They have just been passed along in elementary school without knowing what they are reading.  When they get to high school, they are in serious trouble because the readings are much more difficult.  As said earlier, I never had trouble with reading, so it would be hard to know what a student with reading problems is going through.  I'm sure this resource will help.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Blog Assignment 4

This is a podcast symbol.
The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom by Joe Dale
     The video The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom basically explains why podcasts are useful.  Podcasts can be used in many different ways.  A teacher may upload lectures as podcasts so students will be able to listen to them anywhere.  This is a good review tool, and it also helps a student to not get behind when he/she is at home sick.  Another beneficial way the podcast was used was in having a dramatic play read in one.  This would make it a lot easier for students to understand what was going on in a dramatic play because they could actually hear the language.  Another way the podcast was used in the classroom was by letting the students do their own podcasts.  This made the learning more interactive and probably helped the information stick in the students' minds better.
      This video really opened my eyes to how podcasts could help make things easier for students in the classroom.  It also made me better understand what my group and I would be doing in our podcast project.  If used correctly, this tool could revolutionize the way students learn.  I always learn things better when I hear them, so these podcasts would have definitely helped me when I was in grade school.  Also, the parents will be better able to keep up with what their children are learning if the information is so easily obtained.
Podcasting with First Grade
      In the blog Podcasting with First Grade, Ms. Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano describes how she let her first grade students create a podcast.  She let some students pretend to be characters in a book they were reading.  Other students were allowed to interview the "characters."  She mentions how thrilled the students were to hear their recorded voices.  They wanted to hear themselves over and over again.  She explained how this activity made some of the shy students come out of their shells.  She listed the skills that they had learned which are as follows:  listening, speaking, presenting, comprehension, storytelling, performance, voice acting, oral fluency, media, and technology.
     Making these first graders do podcasts was probably very fun for them, but I didn't really see an educational value in using podcasts in this way.  Are we trying to teach our students to be future actors?  That is what it sounded like the teacher was striving for in this blog post.  I feel like the time she used doing this project could have been used in a better way.  As first graders, these children do not have many academic skills at all.  I just do not see how repeating words the teacher told them to say helped anything.  They may have liked hearing themselves speak, but that did not teach them much of anything.
Langwitches - Flat Stanley Podcast
     Langwitches - Flat Stanley Podcast was about a teacher,  Ms. Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano, using a podcast in the classroom.  She described how podcasting helps students learn to use a language better.  She says you have to hear a word in context to understand and remember it.  The students in a second grade class at this school had scripts written for them in Hebrew, which they read on the podcast.
     This blog post, like the other one I read, seemed very unimportant.  Yes, the students probably enjoyed doing it, but what did they learn.  The teacher uploaded all the content and wrote the script.  All the student had to do was talk and listen to themselves and others talk.  Once again, I did not realize we were training actors in schools these days.  Also, how is saying something in Hebrew going to help a second grader?  They have not even mastered the English language yet.  It just seems like a major waste of time to me.

Project 6

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Blog Assignment 3

Peer Editing
     After reading Paige Ellis's Blog Assignment #12, I really felt a connection with what Paige was saying.  She was not sure what the best way to correct a fellow student's work was.  I felt like this, too.  When we were first assigned to comment on a classmate, I was not sure of the best method to comment.  I did not want to sound mean, but I still wanted to be honest.  What is Peer Editing? and Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial were both very helpful in describing the best methods to comment on a classmate.  Basically, these two tutorials said to do three things when peer editing.  First, compliment the student.  Tell them what you liked about their writing.  Next, make suggestions.  If you think they could have explained something better, tell them.  Finally, make corrections.  If there are any spelling or grammatical errors, let then know in a nice way.  Writing Peer Review Top Ten Mistakes helped to let you know what not to do when it comes to peer review.  It said that you should not be too mean or too picky when you edit a classmate's paper.  It does not help anyone when all you are is negative.
     The student I was assigned to comment on this week was Ariel Robinson.  I thought she did a really good job in her post.  This was my comment to her:
"Hey Ariel,

This is Susie Salter. I was assigned to comment on your blog this week. I really think you did a good job                                summing up all of the videos. If I had not watched any of the videos, I would have been able to see what they were about just by reading your explanation. Your opinions were very short and concise. That is good, but if I were you, I might want to put a little bit more of my view into an analysis of the ideas in the videos. I liked what you said about feeling pressured as an educator because of all the technology. I feel pressured, too. Part of me wants to stick with tradition, and the other part of me says that teaching should advance along with everything else. Who knows what the 'correct' answer is. I really enjoyed your post.
Sincerely,Susie Salter"
     I chose to say everything I wanted to say to her publicly because I did not have any suggestions that might have been embarrassing to her.  If I felt like I needed to tell her something she might not want the whole world to see, I would have e-mailed her.  I am very happy I learned a little bit more about the correct ways to comment.  It makes me feel more confident when I have to do commenting assignments.


Technology in Special Education
     Technology in Special Education was a video in which a teacher showed the different ways technology helps students with special needs.  She talked with several different special needs students, and they all agreed that the computers helped them do their work easier.  I definitely agree that computers are useful to students with special needs.  Some of these students are not capable of writing because they do not have full use of their motor skills.  It is much easier just to press a key on a keyboard than write out a letter.
     I did have some issues with the video as well.  The teacher in the video did not seem excited at all.  She was reading every word she said off of a sheet of paper on the desk in front of her.  Also, she did not seem enthusiastic at all when she was talking to the students.  I seemed like she was just some random person playing the part of a special education teacher.  Also, even though these technologies dramatically help students with disabilities, where does the funding come from?  I know for a fact that in Alabama funding for schools has been cut dramatically.  In the school where my mom works, they do not even have money for supplies.  Why spend all this money on special needs children when the other children and the teachers are not getting any funding?


These are multi-colored iPads.
Using the iPad for Learning
     While watching How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism, it was interesting to see how excited the child was to do academic related things on the iPad.  He was learning to count, recognize words, and write words.  It was as if these instructional activities were fun games.  I think the child liked the sounds and colors the iPad made when he pressed a shape in the counting exercise.  It also seemed that he was enjoying the attention he was getting from his father while doing the activities.
     After going to Apple.EducationApps.com, I decided to look at the apps related to English/Language Arts.  After going to this section in iTunes, I found a great app I think both special needs and regular students could find fun and useful.  The app is called SpellBoard.  You can basically take the spelling words the students are learning and put them into this program, and the program will turn the words into a word search puzzle.
     The SpellBoard app would be great for all children because it turns learning into a game.  It would probably be easier for students to spell words that they had seen numerous times in a "game" they were playing.  As a teacher, this would be a great assignment for all children because it would be fun, easy, and educational.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count
     After viewing Gary Hayes Social Media Count, it really hit me how much technology is progressing.  His webpage is basically showing how many more technology users there are.  These changes mean a lot for me, especially when I become a teacher.  I will have to stay up to date with the latest technology so I can keep up an interaction with my students.  Let's face it, by the time I start teaching, there will probably be TONS of new technology in use.  It's kind of scary.  I don't want to seem dumb to my students because I don't know about the latest craze in the technology world.
     Even though all this new social media helps people stay in touch, it also hurts their real-world social skills.  I was sitting in biology lecture last week, and one student in the row ahead of me was trying to talk to another student sitting beside him.  Student 2 was too busy playing a game on his smart phone to even acknowledge student 1.  It's sad to think that our face to face social skills are plummeting.  We are so used to getting to read over and edit what we text or e-mail that it may be hard to have a real, in-person conversation.  If it's getting bad now, I hate to see social skills in a few years.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
     I really related to A Vision of Students Today.  This video described how much time a student spends doing different things during the day.  The bad part was that the amount of time an average student spends doing different assignments during the day is 26.5 hours.  If anyone has forgotten, there are only 24 hours in a day.  I think this is very true of my life this semester.  I'm taking 19 credit hours.  I work 20-30 hours a week.  I also have to have time to do normal stuff like eating, showering, sleeping, etc.  How do you get everything done?  You multitask and learn to manage your time effectively.
     Another thing that was true in the video was when a person held up a sign that said they spent over $100 on a textbook they never opened.  This is very true here at South.  I have, numerous times, purchased a textbook that was not helpful to me at all.  I may never open this $200 textbook, but when I go to try and sell it back, they tell me there is a "new edition."  I find that ridiculous.  These are the issues teachers should be thinking about.  We college students don't just take one class; we have tons of things to do.  Teachers should take into consideration how much the textbook is.  If they won't be using it, they should tell us that honestly.  I think sometimes teachers forget that students are HUMANS!   Sometimes they create all kinds of work that is doing nothing other than causing the student to resent them.



Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Project 3

This says C4T.
My First C4T Assignment
     For my first C4T assignment, I was given John Spencer's blog, Education Rethink.  My first comment was left on his blog post entitled The Greatest 21st Century Skill.  In this post, Mr. Spencer tells a story about a weekend he had to work at home on school related projects.  He described how his son wanted him to come pick oranges with him.  Mr. Spencer told him that he had to work.  Later, Mr. Spencer's wife takes the boy out to pick oranges and tells him that his father can not come because he has to work.  Mr. Spencer thought about it and decided that his schoolwork was not worth missing out on his moments with his family.  He says at the end of his post "figure out what matters in life and then have the courage, patience, and endurance to live accordingly."  I think this is a great statement.  Many people get so caught up with working that they forget to stop and smell the roses.  We only live once, and we should not waste time doing something meaningless that we could be spending with the ones we love .  I think this is a great concept, and I loved this post by Mr. Spencer.
     The second blog post from Mr. Spencer in which I commented was 10 Reasons Why Most Tests Lead to Lower Standards.  This time, Mr. Spencer talked about the problems with testing.  He gives ten reasons that support his argument that most tests lead to lower standards.  One of the examples he gives is that children just cram material into their heads just long enough to do well on the test, then they forget the material.  I totally agree with his ideas.  I can actually say that I am guilty of this practice.  Who isn't?  Even though I agree tests are not helping students learn, how would you give students credit without tests?  If a student knows there will be no test, he/she will probably not look at the material at all.  This is sad but true.  I don/t see any clear solutions to this problem.  On  different note, Mr. Spencer also had a wonderful drawing he had done himself in this post.  I have really enjoyed reading what Mr. Spencer has to say.

Project 5

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Blog Assignment 2

This is a cartoon computer.
Did You Know?
     After watching "Did You Know?" by Dr. Strange, I was not surprised by any of the statistics except for one. I already knew most people, especially college students, have computers.  Also, most people have cell phones.  The only people I know that do not use these technologies are older and perhaps set in their ways.  Do these technologies aide education?  The answer is definitely.  Students and teachers have access to so many more learning materials with the internet than without it.  However, I think technology also harms education.  It is hard to keep a high school student interested in learning when all they are worried about is texting, going on Facebook, or listening to music.
     As mentioned earlier, I was surprised by one statistic.  The fact that by 2025 the Chinese able to speak English will exceed the English speakers in the rest of the world was mind boggling.  This means that Americans better step it up.  The Chinese may be trying to eventually dominate the United States.  It probably would not be hard for them to do if the economy remains the way it is.  It is definitely something to think about.
Mr. Winkle Wakes
     I understand that "Mr. Winkle Wakes" was supposed to say that more technology should be used in schools.  This is a good idea in theory, but as I recall from high school, if we were given an opportunity to get on the computer to do work, we did not want to do anything other than watch funny Youtube videos or listen to music.  I, for instance, would always want to shop online.  This may have been because we lived in a rural area with mostly dial-up internet connections at home.  It was a treat to have access to high speed internet.  Then again, it may not have been this at all.  Most young people do not find learning fun so letting them use computers in the classroom would probably just distract.  
     Even though USA is not a high school, the students here even get distracted by technology.  You cannot get through one class without someone texting or looking at something inappropriate online.  I think there is a place for technology in school, but it cannot be used freely because students would never learn anything.  Some students might cooperate and do what they are supposed to, but there are going to be some bad apples that distract the entire class by looking at something they are not supposed to be viewing.  Most students need structure to learn.
The Importance of Creativity
     Out of all the videos I watched for this assignment, I most enjoyed "The Importance of Creativity."  Sir Ken Robinson was especially funny.  Even though the video was long, it was much easier to watch just because he made so many jokes.  I liked when he made the joke about Shakespeare going to school and how annoyed English teachers must have been with him.  I also enjoyed the part about women being better multi-taskers than men.  I totally agree with this.  I feel like I do a million more things than my boyfriend does, and he still ends up being more "exhausted" than me at the end of the day.  
     Besides the humor, another good point Robinson had was that all people do not learn the same.  He makes the point that trying to teach everyone the same way stifles creativity.  He makes a good example of this when he says that most children will answer any question without concern for being wrong, but by the time they enter college, all they are concerned with is being wrong.  It would be embarrassing for them to be wrong.  Really, being wrong a little bit makes you learn more than just sitting back and not doing anything.  I also related to his idea that most people do not go into a field they love for fear of not being able to get a job.  This is incredibly true.  Most people I talk to are just going into a field because they want security.
A Vision for 21st Century Learning
     "A Vision for 21st Century Learning" got on my nerves a little bit.  The idea of virtual learning is a good idea in theory because children do love video games.  It would seem like this would make children learn more about history by virtually exploring different places.  I, however, feel like this virtual world would be too much of a game.  Children would not learn the facts; they would just learn how to play the game.
Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
     I enjoyed the concept of "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts" mainly because it depicted a Southern classroom that used technology to learn and interact with other parts of the world.  Although I liked the concept, I still am not quite on board with the reality of the idea.  It seemed as though this video was advocating ONLY learning about technology as if that is all that matters.  What happened to tradition?  If students use computers for all their writing, what will happen to handwriting?  Will that be an ancient concept?  I think there is beauty and passion in a handwritten work.  It pains me to see this depicted as old news.  Also, it was said that this kind of learning empowered kids.   Well, I guess they do feel empowered when they can go to school, play a video game, and call it learning.  
     Another problem I had with the idea depicted in this video was that, I feel, advocating technology too much can actually make children dumber.  Yes, technology is a useful resource in learning, but when you implement it too much, children use it as a crutch.  Why learn something when you can google it?  What would happen if one day we were faced with a world without internet?  Would today's youth know what to do with themselves?  Would they have any other skills if they had been taught technology so much?  I am not sure what would happen, but I know that it is a scary thought.  People may not even have any communication skills because they have been so used to typing back and forth.