Thing #5

As discussed in a couple of the other posts, School 2.0 is an advancement towards entering the 21 century.  Much like our environment and the world around us, technology is rapidly becoming a part of most of our lives.  You can buy a computer, phone or virtually any type of electronic and it very well may require an update before you even take it out of the box.  I think that School 2.0 is an attempt to link what is so popular with today's youth.  As an older student (graduated high school in the eighties), I grew up with very little technology in schools.  As a matter of fact, there were only two computers with word processing only in my entire high school.  Could you imagine writing all your papers by hand, without spell check or grammar assistance?  Through three math classes I have had at APSU, there has been a discussion as to the use of calculators in school and if used, at what grades would be appropriate to introduce.  Are our young students becoming too reliant on calculators or technology?  Technology is crucial in the advancement of our nation and the rest of the world.  We are always looking for better, more efficient ways of doing or producing things, and technology allows us to do that.  In order for us to advance in technology outside of school, we MUST introduce technology within our schools.    I think it is and will be our responsibility as teachers to properly introduce technology to assist in the presentation as well as supplement learning in ways that remain interactive. 

I got an email just last night from my child's middle school that there is an increasing problem with cell phone violations in school.   To a person of my age, this is a true example to what influence technology has on our youth.  I didn't even have a cell phone until I was 30, and I only had 100 minutes a month!  If our youth are becoming proficient with technology at an early age and this is interesting and important to them, they will undoubtedly learn from that method better than with previous methods.  Gathering and maintaining the attention of our students is also a quality that we strive to learn and master as teachers.