The Old Issue of Cellphones in School

When my generation was starting first grade this wasnt even an idea to have children with mobile devices.  As we got older cellphones were easier to access and people starting getting them in their later teens.  This brought to schools the issue of controling cellphone use in class.  Many teachers had strict rules on using your cellphone in class or if they even saw it they would take it.  With technology becoming more advanced and actually being able to helpout in the classroom, schools are faced with another question.  Will cellphones be allowed in class for educational purposes. A few people have done and polls and this is one of the results.  Some videos show positives and negatives of students having a cell phone in school. These are the opinions of the three news casters, but they are all very legitimate arguements. 

 Being a student and a future educator I can take both sides of this arguement.  Not only can students be distracted but it has promoted cyber bullying also.  An example of this is someone taping a fight and sending it around school or inappropriate pictures being sent throughout the school. Though these are negatives we have seen positives in our SEDU class. For example, using it to anonymously have students answer a poll and have instant results at the front of the classroom.  This is an issue that started when my generation started middle school and has grown to an even larger issue with the capabilties a phone has now-a-days. I believe this issue will continue on as technology continues to grow. 
 
My side on this issue is that I think it would be useful for me when I become a teacher.  Being that I am going to be  a Middle school teacher, kids will all have cells phones as they do now.  This means that I can use them in quick quizzes or polls.  I like this idea because I know how shy children can be.  Especially when it comes to science.  Most students aren't very knowledgeable when it comes to science.  This means that they would be shy to raise their hand because they don't want other kids to think they are stupid.  With the cell phone polls it can all be annonymous and I can figure out what I need to take more time on and what they are actually comprehending.  I think this could definitly be a positive in my classroom. 

Twitter and Facebook in School?

Twitter and Facebook should be something that teachers use to keep themselves connected and to continuously learn new things, but I dont think they should be used with students.  Students are already so distracted in class and adding a tool like these are just going to add to the distractions. If anyone has any positives on using them in the classroom I'm open to any ideas...

Technology used in the classroom

When I began this activity I didn't really know where I was going to start.  Being a Science major, I think of science activities as more hands on and didn't know how I would teach a science activity through PowerPoint.  I knew how to make a PowerPoint presentation for a class but had never made one with hyperlinks and buttons to bounce around pages.  I enjoyed learning these new features and trying to incorporate them into my PowerpPint.  I think that everyone had a hard time trying to just do one activity from a lesson and ended up just doing a powerpoint presentation on the whole lesson, like my teachers did in highschool. This was a challenge, but it did help me learn to navigate around PowerPoint.

My PowerPoint

Personal Learning Networks

           As I began reading chapter one of Personal Learning Networks I went into it a bit skeptical. This chapter told us about what is out there and available and how to start using it.  I believe that we should use technology to teach, but I also believe in a hands on approach. I think that I so strongly believe in the hands on approach because that is the way that I learn things best.  Luckily the book broke things down for me, such as the bullet list made by Dave Wiley. I realized that we are changing drastically from small use of technology to everyhing being connected electronically from the list, "Analog to digital, tethered to mobile,  isolated to connected, generic to personal, consumption to creation, and closed systems to open systems."  One of these things that I did see as a negative was with the isolated to connected bullet.  After the list they went more in detail on each bullet and for this one they say that you can be 3 thousand miles away and be close to someone but be right next to someone and be so far away from them.  This worries me, because students can be so against getting close to their teacher and being comfortable with them and this would cause that seperation to be even further.

            Though I have doubts on going head first into technology in the classroom I did find things that I think would be helpful for a teacher.  "How to collaborate with them in ways that go beyond sharing existing information to the creation of new knowledge."  This statement alone gave me hope that not only can teachers connect and help each other out with sharing information they can collaborate and come up with new ideas and this means that teaching won't be the same information over and over again. I think that lessons should update with the times. New things are being discovered everyday and with the technology in the classroom students get to be kept more up to date.

           The more I read into this chapter the more my skeptisim went away.  The part that pushed me into actually accepting the idea was that "students are better prepared for life and work in the 21st century" and "Intruction is more individualized."  In schools right now students are given work, told to memorize it, then take a test and forget it. That doesn't help shape you into an adult or teach you anything about the real world. If bringing technology into the classroom in full force could help ready students for their futures I'm all for it.  Also people learn in different ways and having things be individualized helps everyone learn better.  Over all this chapter has opened my views of bringing technology into the classroom. We will see if I am fully convinced by the end of the book.

The old

The new

                 V.S