Blog Post # 3

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

This video has captured some of my college experiences. I have attended, Bishop State Community College and am currently here at The University of South Alabama. At Bishop State, Classes were small, usually no more than 30 students. So I was astounded when I went to my first class at South and found an auditorium with 200 students. Most students at Bishop did not carry around a laptop. So, getting on the internet and facebooking (Can I verb that?) was not an issue. However, the situation here at South is a different story. Students carry their laptops to class as more and more classes are turning hybrid. The only problem I see is that students tend to browse the internet and not pay attention to the instructor. I actually did and still do read my text books,but the majority of students do not. At both colleges, I have seen many students on cell phones in class; texting, talking, messaging, looking at the internet. They are doing everything except paying attention to the instructor. I tend to get aggravated when I see this because, here we are paying a lot of money for an education and some of those people are just blowing off their opportunity. There were several other situations mentioned in the video that applied to me as well, such as, working, eating,watching television, and networking. All of these activities add up to a huge amount of time, actually more time than in a 24 hour period. The one thing I could add to that video is: having children and taking care of a family. Today there are more and more mothers and fathers returning to college or starting college for the first time. So, add that to all of the things mentioned and as you could imagine, sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to take care of everything.


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

In her article Kelly Hines discusses the four things that every teacher must recognize in order to effectively and positively impact students in a new generation of learning.
1. Teachers must be learners.

As an educator or future educator how could one not agree with this statement? How can we effectively teach students in this day and time without learning more ourselves? After all, isn't learning what we are expecting our students do while we teach? So by learning new techniques and staying on top of currents trends is a good example of being a "learner".

2.Learning and Teaching are not the same thing.

I agree with this statement. Educators can teach a lesson until they are blue in in the face, but unless students can demonstrate that they have mastered the lesson being taught, then it was not learned. I can think back to my experience in Elementary School where my teacher was teaching prime numbers and I just didn't get it. She tried and tried to explain it to me, but I never learned what they were until I went to college and started with basic math. I remember feeling so frustrated and more worse than that, the teacher made me feel stupid. Eventually the teacher just moved on without me.

3. Technology is useless without good teaching

This one stands out to me. I absolutely agree with this! Why on earth would school systems spend so much money on technology, if teachers are not willing to be educated. I have seen this first hand in a few of my own children's classrooms. The Smart Board is there, but is not being utilized. Children love to use it and it creates an exciting learning atmosphere. Something about the Smart Board draws students in and keeps their attention. Some of the teachers I have spoken to about their Smart Board say that they don't have time to learn how to use it, or they don't want to attend a workshop on the weekend. What a waste of great technology!

4. Be a 21st Century Teacher without the technology.

I don't think that teaching should be all about technology. However, it can be a great asset. Teaching children to be learners and to critically think is just as important as teaching them components of a computer and how they work, especially in this world of technology and gadgets. I think that maintaining a balance of technology and good old fashioned learning can be beneficial for the students.

Karl Fisch:Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

If you are an educator or not,it is not okay to be Technologically Illiterate. Everyone needs to be able to operate a computer. In this age of Technology computers are everywhere and most companies used them for the job application process, Universities use them for communicating with students, Hospitals use them for charting. So, you see it is not only important for Educators to be computer literate, it is important for everyone.

How, as an educator can one not be technologically literate? Lesson plans are done on the computer, e-mails are sent to colleagues, worksheets can be found on the web, news letters are created, and many other countless tasks. So, I could see why it would frustrate Mr. Fisch for his staff to not be technologically literate. I would think it would make things more difficult in their day-to-day activities.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Looking at the numbers it makes you realize that this world is a big world and getting bigger. But, with the advancement of computers and technology the world seems to be smaller. The more the numbers change the more I think to myself, I need to make sure that I learn as much as I can in regards to computers. There is so much to learn and I don't think that I will ever know all there is to know about technology but, I want to delve deeper in this content area that I seem to know so little about. I think that it is the way of the future as more and more people are using computers and such to run their businesses, as well as, the addition of computers to schools all over the world. I believe that the more you know about technology and how to use it will greatly affect the chances of employ-ability. After all, would a principal want to hire someone who doesn't know how to use a computer or would he/she want to hire an educator with computer experience and knowledge of programs? So to sum it up, knowing how to use technology can only help in my future as an educator.