Podcast

Here is my podcast. http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/1420/episodes/6778

My podcast is me interviewing three brothers about their technology use in a social and academic setting. They also talk about their feelings about an technology based classroom.

A review of the website Partnership for 21st Century Skills

My reaction to the website Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, was what an amazing resource this website is for anyone in the educational field that is looking for resources and or data about how to integrate technology in the classroom and the benefits of it and why it is important for our students to have these skills. The website was overwhelming at first. It took a couple of minutes, of me “playing” around on it before I found the information I was looking for. Overall, it is very eye catching and pretty user friendly. The information on the site that surprised where what other states were doing to try and close this technology gap that we have in schools and how long people are have do research on these new skills that our students need in order to survive in the ever change work place. Another shocking fact was how much other country are doing to make sure that their students are up to speed and or setting the bar for how and what students are learning and using technology. Compare to the other countries the U.S. looks bad because for some reason the county is almost fighting against this change is how and what our students need to know in order to get those “white collar” jobs. The other big shock I had were people’s responses to the articles that were published on this site. I really thought people would be excited and chomping on the bit to try these new ways of teaching in their classroom. To my surprise, people were having the opposite feeling towards the lessons and ideas provided on this website. People were suggesting that it was a waste of time for the majority of students to have these skills and that most students would not need these skills in their future job careers. People were supporting the way that things are currently being done and how could they possible teach these new technology skills when they do not even have enough time to teach the require curriculum. I disagree with all of their comments. It shows me that they have no clue what is going on in the rest of the world when it comes to educating students about technology. They are in their comfort zone with the old way of teaching and they themselves are afraid and do not understand these new technology skills. After reading the articles about how the earth is becoming flat, I see no future for our students unless they posses this new technology literacy skills. The implications for my students and I is that we are going to have to unlearn our current thoughts and beliefs about education. We need to revamp how we teach our students and how schools and classrooms are set-up. This website proves that in order for teachers to stay current on new technology and implications of it for use in the classroom, teachers are going to need to go back to school and continue to go back so they are up to date on the technology so then they can pass that information and skills onto their students. The world is changing and it is time for the education world to change as well.

Using the blog as a classroom tool

The way that I can potentially see myself using the blog website as a tool in my classroom is a way to post videos of my students signing and of adults signing. I teach students in kindergarten through 2nd grade, and all of my students use sign language as their primary mode of communication. Since most of my families do not know sign language, I think that my blog site could be a place where they could go and learn it for free and where my students could go and see other people signing and practice their skills. I think it would be awesome for the students to take turns recording themselves signing a the short stories that we are currently working on in reading groups so that when they went home they could practice reading the story. If they forgot a sign then they could watch the video on the blog spot for help. Parents could also watch the video as well and read the story. I could post videos of me signing more difficult books, spelling lists, and making lessons for people who want to learn sign. I think that the students would be excited about learning how to use the equipment and recording themselves and watching themselves on-line. I believe the blog being used this way would be very valuable to my students and their families to improve their sign language skills but for the students to go to and get help in sign language, which they can't get at home.