Blog Assignment 3

A Vision of Students Today by Michael Wesch is such a reality check about living the college life. I relate to almost all of the things brought up in this video. Spending hundreds of dollars, sometimes per book, on textbooks that are "required" for a class and yet, never opening them. I work everyday and at least twenty hours a week. In the video, they calculate the average amount of time students spend doing various things during the day and it adds up, exceeding the number of hours in a day. I am up by seven almost every morning and by the time I finish my necessary daily things, I realize it is already the early hours of the next day. I get a couple hours sleep and I am up doing it all over again. Needless to say, I do not obtain the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. When thinking about the amount of money we pour into our education and realizing that half of it has nothing to do with what we will do with our lives gives me a headache. Most of us will spend years trying to pay off our college debt after graduation.
     Technology is a requirement in college. It may be minimal, just having a computer to type up your papers or having access to a computer often enough to email teachers daily, but it almost forces you to buy laptops. So these laptops and computers that are basically a requirement, can, unfortunately, also be a distraction. I often see students using their laptop to do things that do not pertain to the class that they are in, therefore, not paying attention to the professor. This video was very much like my own personal college experiences.


It's Not about the Technology by Ms. Hines is so very true and I think every teacher should read it. Yes, technology is changing greatly and quickly, it is not just technology that needs to change. Teaching methods should change too. I agree with Ms. Hines that teachers should be learning too. Education is never ending, we are never done learning. So as teachers, we need to be continuing our education with up to date methods in order to give our students the best education they can receive. I could not agree more with Ms. Hines when she states if a child hasn't learned then no teaching has occured. This is so true. Not all children learn the same way so not all children are going to learn and grasp the material if it isn't taught in a variety of ways.
     All too often students find themselves in classrooms with teachers who have their mind dead set on one way to teach. They do not want to budge from their ways and learn the new ways. However, it is time that teachers adjust their ways to better teach their students. Ms. Hines makes a perfect example of this when she talks about putting technology in the hands of teachers who are not willing to use it. It is a waste of money for sure but it is more so pathetic. I think if teachers would rewind time and put themselves back in the desk as a student and then think, as a student, would I be able to learn from a teacher like me or should I change to better the education of my students? I think things would be a great deal different.


      In Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?, Karl Fisch states, "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." He then asks if his statement is a bit extreme. I think not. His statement is very true and not too extreme at all. If we teach as technologically illiterate teachers then how prepared will our students be when they are done with school and if they are not prepared, then have we really taught them anything worthwhile (or even at all)?
     If there is technology available that can help to better educate children, teachers need to learn how to use it and then use it in their classroom to better the education that children receive. He makes a very good point that education is continual, not just for students, but instructors as well. It is necessary for a teacher to be able to teach their students the necessary skills and in order to do that, we must know them in the first place; without knowing these skills, we cannot teach children the things they need to know.


     Gary's Social Media post just goes to show exactly how fast things are changing. It truly is astonishing. As a teacher, I will have to keep up with the new technology in order to help my students learn. Not everything in the classroom should be technology, but this day and age it surely helps to keep the attention and eagerness of students.