2nd post January 24 2010

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
I enjoyed watching Mr. Wesch's video. It was so neat the way the walls and seats were used in the video instead of hearing someone discuss the issue because that can be boring at times. This video has my attention from the beginning to end. I also enjoyed the way the students were used by either writing or typing a response to the issue. The video did capture most of my college experience. One of the things that I would add to it would be the hours out of a day that I text message. I hardly talk on the phone and I mostly text message throughout the day. Another thing that I would add would be about having a social life outside of classes. I live four hours from Mobile and I will hardly be going home this semester, I think I counted two times that I will be going home and one of the times will be for Spring Break. I don't have much of a social life when school is in session. When I saw the sign that said, "Only 18% of Teachers know me by name." That is not bizarre because most teachers may not take the time out to learn their students name and some students may not talk during a discussion or to ask a question. Though it's still at the beginning stage for the semester and some of my teachers are trying to remember names with faces, only one out of six teachers has called my name besides during roll call. If you want a teacher to know who you are, you have to make sure that teacher knows you.

Kelly Hines: It's Not About the Technology
I enjoyed reading this post. It's very helpful information for all teachers to know. I'm going to be a special education teacher and it's not going to be easy work, but I want to be able to make learning for my students fun and enjoyable. I agree that teachers must be learners. Though we may be teaching others there is still going to be room for teachers to learn along the way. Especially because every student learns differently so we as teachers have to have the ability to teach all students a way that they can follow. Her second point is so true. I have always seen a teacher get frustrated because the students wasn't understanding the material even after he/she went over it hundreds of times. Even in college, I have been in a class where the teacher felt that the material she was teaching shouldn't have been reviewed because we(the students) should have learned it years ago. That was discouraging to see a teacher get so upset because some students didn't remember how to work out problems. Teachers should remember that they were once students. They also went through most of the problems that their students are facing and should not get so upset if they have to re do an assignment for their students to understand. If they find that their students don't understand the material, then they should think about teaching the material a different way. It's simple the administration should know who their innovative and non innovative teachers are and should only give them certain technologies to work with to teach students so that it want be a waste of time or money.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher
This post was inspiring to me. I want to be technologically literate not just for me but also for my students. I want to be able to keep up with everything that brings excitement to my students when they are not in the classroom. I want to bring that excitement into the classroom so that they feel at home or have a home away from home. Teachers who are not willing to take steps to improve their teaching throughout the years should get ready for students to sleep in their classroom due to boredom. You should want your students to look forward to class everyday. That would be a great feeling knowing that your students enjoy your class. Being technologically literate as a teacher is like keeping up with fashion during every season and knowing whats in season and outdated. I loved the part where Fisch talks about the parents who to me made excuses for their children by saying that they were not good at a subject that their child now is having a hard time learning. For those parents, I feel that they are just making excuses, but even if you(the parent) had a difficult time learning a subject that your child is now learning you should fix it so that they want make the same excuse for their own children. If you have to get a tutor for your child then do it, but don't make excuses as if it's okay when it's not.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count
These numbers are unbelievable. Is this really happening every second? I have seen and heard different numbers being thrown out about technology, but seeing everything at once that possibly could be happening at this moment is just unbelievable. I have really thought about what this could really mean for my career. Possibly that I really need to keep up with the trend of the Internet when I begin teaching. I looked at the different social networks that were used for the count and that I recognize. I see that Hayes didn't use myspace. I wonder if he didn't include myspace into the count because it's not as popular as it used to be years ago. That's another thought to think about for when I begin teaching. Most social networks that are popular now possibly will not be popular in two or three years. There will be another social network that will be more popular than facebook and twitter. Why does that happen? Possibly because after awhile it gets boring and could mean it's time for a change. On the other hand, some people don't like change when they have gotten comfortable using a internet site. When facebook changes something on their site, I see a lot of unhappy status updates regarding the changes, but after awhile the subscribers get use to the new change and just deal with it. So possibly if facebook were to ever become unpopular it would possibly be due to people being bored with the site and they move on to a more new and popular site. I have been on a lot of different social networks since I was a teenager. Facebook is the only one so far that has gotten me to be in contact with a lot of my distant family members who I hardly communicate with. I wonder if facebook would stick around longer than other social networks and continue to be the most popular site. I guess we would just have to stick around and found out.