Reflections 3 (Link to how I applied what I learned in class)

This has been a great way for me to learn about the technology and be able to apply the uses as practice is what makes things meaningful. As a school social work and a support to the students this process has opened my eyes more so to the world that students are growing up in. I had pong as my first video game and was enthralled with that as an elementary age kid and saw what became the preface to email in college, these kids see those as old school. The nature of technology for them is second nature which seems to be why they can have a second life. Because of the sheer amount of information accessible in front of you on the computer and phones it makes sense to me that there is too much information for one life so you need a second one just to hold the overflow of information. At times, it is exciting and at others overwhelming with the opportunities and differences. My learning curve has come around so that I feel comfortable blogging on topics that are relevant to me and educational. I still have not embraced the value of blogging for social connection, but maybe I will experience the value someday as I learn from my kids. Blogs, wikis, social networking, and social bookmarking are all processes that I feel I have a little knowledge to speak intelligently, but not dangerously about now. I will be trying to incorporate these tools into my practice more so including the MW counseling web page that I have added things to throughout this course as this course has kept me motivated to keep it current. Please check it out and give nay feedback about other things that could be useful. I also am curious and hope to go over the hump with my learning curve on using videos for instructional practice and social/emotional development together with the students.

School 2.0

The technology that is an essential part of our world today and the future is shown in a useful way. The visual picture of the schools of the future is helpful as a visual format to jump off of into ideas and brainstorming. The integrative nature is striking to me. Especially the handheld hardware as it will be interesting to see if we move that far with the technology and still keep a balance of the personal and efficient. I may be traditional, but one of the things I would like to see kept is the buildings as they also personal contact for personal relationships. There is opportunity to create personal relationships amongst businesses , community, and the world through technology that currently do not exist. The balance needs to be to somehow be able to find a way to keep the relationships with our neighbor and develop global relationships as well. Other things that would be useful to keep include the connectivity from building to community to business to parents. It also seems to give a good framework for the fundamentals necessary to provide an infrastructure for schools for the future. The challenges will be how to take the necessary steps to do it in a thoughtful way.

Thoughts on Dr. Zhao's Podcasts

The topics that struck me regarding Dr. Zhao's podcast were about the future of education, not so much about what is wrong with it now. Those that seemed vital included:
1. the global nature of the future for our students t
2. The need to shift away from using technology as a way to teach traditionally and instead allowing the student to feel like a contributing individual in the global community.

I liked the theme that seems to come up again and again of farm life whether in China or Nebraska or locally that every individual contributing to the community is a valued member working the crops and with each other. It was interesting to hear how vastly different teaching can be using technology differently. The intriguing example of how Dr. Z has developed a mandarin chinese curriculum online with an island on second life that helps to immerse you in the language with the tools to learn the curriculum would be fascinating to put some creative minds on and apply locally. Are any of our classrooms and students speaking virtually or through technology to other cultures and languages as he describes?
This podcast was especially interesting for me as an alum of Michigan State, where he is from, and how distance learning is changing the make up of standard based classes in a room not in virtual reality. It helped to link some things that had started with distance learning when I was there and my professors were pulled to start the distance learning initiatives. it is nice to see how they are progressing across the board. I wonder if other universities are all in line with this and at what point it will move down to the secondary and elementary schools as much?