What's coming next???

I just finished typing my answers to our weekly discussion questions. One of the questions asked about what new technologies and developments we thought were going to have the most impact on all areas of our lives. That is a really good question. When you look at some of the things people in the past have envisioned and how they have come true in many cases, it makes you wonder if things we see in futuristic movies nowadays are ever going to happen. Jules Verne wrote about things like going to the moon in huge rocket ships. Many years after he died, that actually happened. I am a big Star Trek fan so growing up, I've watched phasers being fired, people being beamed from place to place, ships traveling faster than the speed of light, and talking robots. I just wonder how much of that stuff will actually happen in the future. Maybe someday that will all really become reality. The same can be said for education, however, I think that education changes a little slower and not quite as drastic as normal everyday lives of people. If you compare today's classroom to one from 100 years ago there are many differences, but let's be honest, a lot of things are the same. Teachers still stand at the front of the room and lecture while students take notes, there are still textbooks, and students still take tests like they have for years. I mean, there are definitely differences in education now compared to 100 years ago and new technologies are always being implemented into classrooms. I just think that education is a little slower to take use of new technologies and developments. But, there are more and more changes all the time as technology is used more often in more classrooms and I think those changes are without a doubt for the better.

Thanksgiving Break

It was great while it lasted but now we're back on the grind for a few weeks before we get to go on the big break! I was actually in Warrensburg over the whole break because we had a game Friday and Saturday so we had practice on thanksgiving morning. It kind of ruins the "break" part of thanksgiving, but I DID take the whole week off from doing anything associated with educational technology, not gonna lie! Well, I guess that's not even entirely true, because I did have a good conversation with my mom, who is a gifted education instructor at an elementary and middle school, during break about using digital cameras in the classroom. Being a gifted instructor, she deals with many students who are very technology savvy, some even knowing more than her. Since they express such an interest in new technologies, my mom says she tries to nurture that fascination by giving her students as much opportunity to use technology as possible. My mom says she has really started using digital cameras in her classroom quite a bit and for different things. This was really the first time I had talked to an educator who had started using digital cameras in their classroom and then I turn around and one of the other groups in my online class used digital cameras in education as their topic for their presentation. I guess this means that digital cameras are becoming very prevelant in classrooms everywhere. I think this is a really good thing, there just seems to be so many possiblities for their use in education. In a history class, I think I would love to try to do some kind of project where the students work in groups and somehow recreate an important event in history and take pictures/video of their recreation to share with the class. I would love to hear from a veteran teacher who had tried something like this, if there are any. I'm sure there has been something like this done before and I would love to hear/learn about it.

Online Class Group Project

Yes, an online group project. Haha. I had no idea that those were even done but, after some early complications, we got ours completed and turned in and I think it is pretty well done. When I first saw that we were going to have to do a group project in an online class, I will admit, I was really worried. I knew it would be hard to decide on a topic, what to do with that topic, and to get organized. At first, it seemed as if I would be proven right. However, there was one person in our group that did a really good job of getting everybody organized and on the same page. She even set a time for us to get on a chat room provided by blackboard so that we could talk in real time about what we were all supposed to do for our project. That was really a great idea becuase as great as email is for communication it is still not in real time and talking on the chat room really helped clear some things up for me. So, it actually turned out that this project was a really good thing, I think. It made us use the internet for serious communication and we found out that it really is possible to get organized online and effectively complete a project. So there you have it, the internet really can be used for SERIOUS WORK and not just facebook and myspace!

That Disney youtube copyright video....

I just got done watching that video, from the link on our course documents for this week and man....that thing is crazy! It was pretty cool though, somebody really took some time to put that together. It was pretty informative too, once I got the hang of it and was able to keep up with it. I guess I need to go read some more of this week's chapter in the book but I found it interesting that after 14 years (according to the video) copyrighted material becomes "public property". I think that is what it was saying at least! I wonder if that happens all the time or if people can renew their copyrights on that material. I'm not sure if it said that or not in the video. Oh well, I'll go look more into the book and see if it says something about it or just go look it up on my own. I know one thing, that "Disney" video took a lot of work and somebody deserves an award for that!

Last week, I interviewed Shawn Jones, who is the Associate Athletic Director for External Operations at The University of Central Missouri. I really actually enjoyed this assignment. I learned a lot from the interview about a lot of different things. Shawn is not only the Associate A.D. but is also the radio voice of the mules. It was really interesting to listen to him talk about the inisides of the Athletic department and what all goes on. I went in with a list of questions but as he began to talk, I learned a lot more than I had planned and I had more questions that I just kept coming up with along the way. I found myself a lot more interested in what he did than I thought. I've always known that a career in Athletics, whether it be coaching or the administration side, but during this interview I learned so much more about what goes on and I actually feel even more excited about possibly getting into Athletics Administration than before. One highlight of the interview that was particularly interesting to me was when Shawn talked about the significance of facebook. At first, he says that he saw it as a possible major problem (which it has proven to be in some instances at other educational institutions) but now he actually uses it to advertise for sporting events. Either way, it is something that has been a very significant issue since its conception. People in Shawn's position have to look out for things like this and must stay on top of new technology devices.

From a Distance...

I think that last week's topic of distance education and the history of it was pretty interesting. I really thought it was interesting to learn about how people have experiemented with using new technology to teach and learn from a distance for so long. It is neat to think that people saw the potential of even teaching by mail at one point. Then came telegraphs and educators saw even more potential in those because they sped up communication so much. I'm sure when telephones were introduced an attempt was made to educate through their use as well. I know that televisions have been used becuase I remember we had a class in my high school that was taught through the local college via television. I-TV is what it was called, I think. I'm not sure if that is still in use anymore, I wonder if the use of the internet has made I-TV obsolete? One thing is for sure, the internet is a more interactive approach to distance education and I'm guessing it is the best tool to use for that up to this point. I just wonder what new technologies will eventually come out that will make distance education even more effective becuase it is probably not a question of if that will happen, but when......

Technology Conflicts

First off, let me apologize for neglecting my blogging activities for the 10 days or so. I have fallen a little behind but I promise I will start keeping up with them so that everyone can know what is one my mind! I will backtrack to our class's readings last week about management in relation to technology in schools. After reading through some of the articles, especially the "More voices Create Better Policies" article, I began wondering how much conflict really exists between teachers and technology personnel in schools. I have only student taught, but even in that short amount of time, I could already see possible problems that could exist. There were times that I wanted to have quick access to a certain website but couldn't because it was blocked. It could be very annoying. Of course, as a lowly student teacher, I didn't really feel like it was my place to say anything to someone who could do something about it, so sometimes I just had to accept that I wasn't going to be able to use a certain website. For example, there were several videos that I could have used off youtube.com but it was a website that was blocked. I had even used a video off of that website for a lesson I had to teach to my pre-service teacher peers earlier in that semester and it had gone really well. I kind of looked forward to doing a similar lesson in student teaching. I probably could have found a way around using youtube if I really wanted to for that particular lesson, but it was just so easy to use and all I needed was Internet access. This is why youtube or sites like it, with easy access to a variety of videos, can be so useful to teachers sometimes. With that being said, I can also easily see why youtube was a site that was blocked, there is a lot more on there than educational things and students shouldn't be looking at a lot of videos on there during school. I guess what I'm getting at is that I can easily see where there could be two views on things like certain websites being blocked, which could create controversy between teachers and technology administrators. Maybe this is a question that I should put on the message board for my class, but I really just wonder how often this happens and would love to hear a teacher's perspective as well as a tech person's perspective on the conflicts that can arise. I think it is obviously great to have a tech person at every school, but it is definitely one more administrator that teacher has to deal with and that can surely create more controversy.