Blog Assignment 3

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

This was an interesting video about the issues many college students face today. Oversized classes, anonimity, not enough hours in the day, and so on are problems with which most students must deal. One student pointed out how much she would be in debt when she graduated. Another pointed at the bright side by saying how lucky we are that we can earn more than $1/day which the is the case in many impoverished and undeveloped parts of the world.

One student noted that the problems of the world will soon be her problems. In some respects she is exactly right. Students of today will become the leaders of tomorrow, in the business world, in our local, state, and national governments, and in others areas of leadership. Many students will choose to be among the silent minority and try to live a life isolated from many of societies problems, but we can't hide from things like gas prices, general inflation and an unstable job market. We must find ways to combat societies problems and try to make a better world. We need to our use college experience to change things for the better.



"It's Not About The Technology" by Kelly Hines


This is good and insightful writing by Ms Hines. Her four key points were 1) teachers must be learners, 2) learning and teaching are not the same thing, 3) technology is useless without good
teaching, and 4) be a 21st century teacher without technology. These are all very good points that are difficult to argue with. In her writing she uses very real examples to illustrate her points. It's hard not to agree with the things she says.

I wholeheartedly agree that technology is not the savior of education but a tool to be used to
educate and teach. The issue that I have yet to see addressed in these writings and videos that we're analyzing is how can we motivate students to want to learn and excel. There will always be achievers that will happily learn whatever we teach. What I'm eager to see is a solution to the students who don't want to put forth the effort to really learn. If this problem can be solved
we can compete with Finland, Japan, China, or anyone on Earth.


Karl Fisch: Is It Okay To Be Technologically Illiterate

This is an interesting and entertaining bit of writing. Basically, he is saying anyone in the
education realm that is not technologically literate should be tarred and feathered and ran out
of town. Obviously, that is an exaggeration on my part, but Mr Fisch does feel strongly about
the subject. He is correct when he says a person that can't read or write today would have a hard time being successful; however, I don't believe that some technological shortcomings add
up to the same thing, but I'm not really sure what he considers technologically illiterate.

I was middle school science teacher for 10 years; here is what I believe is true for the majority of teachers today: teachers will learn whatever technology they feel will benefit themselves and the students in their classroom, and most teachers feel like whatever subject they are teaching is probably the most important information for students to learn. I would be
be surprised if Mr Fisch didn't feel that way when he was teaching math. In most classrooms today there is one computer for the teacher and it's usually off limits to students. Most teachers don't even have the option to use technology in a big way, but if the opportunity is there, and it will increase student achievement, it should be used.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count

AMAZING !!!! I don't really know what else to say. The perpetually updating graphic was pretty
amazing on its own, but then when you look at the numbers and statistics that are being shown
it is quite obvious that we are living in an era of electronic and technological explosion.

Some of the numbers (such as email) probably are coming from the business world, but there is no
denying that the social media is growing faster than I can get my arms around. I would think that the majority of the growth is from younger users, but that may not be true. My wife and most of her friends are on Facebook and we're not so young anymore. I wonder if the kid that created Facebook ever even dreamed of what it would become. Again, I don't know what else to
say. AMAZING !!!









teachers need to do whatever they can to improve student achievement