1 to World! Assignment #4

In the Pautz article I liked the idea of helping teachers to become the technology leaders.  They were incorporating NETS A Standard 1a, by inspiring and facilitating a shared vision of purposeful change maximizing the resources available.  Meeting with parents, and student leadership they were looking at a change of culture throughout the school.  The idea to come up with newspaper heading they would like to see by 2018 describing their school is really putting a vision to the ongoing process they plan on making with technology in their school.

Cuban made some interesting points that speak to the engagement of students, however it sounds like the process is an ongoing one, with more research being needed to see if funding these 1:1 programs is truly worth it. Personally I see it is a great engagement factor, however I don’t see that the cost is worth it.  Of course technology is engaging and fun- but I don’t know that without a shift in teaching or teacher training that we need to spend the money on ensuring each child has a technology device in their hands at school! My son has a chrome book at his school, he just finished 6^th grade, but one of the first days he had his chrome book he got caught playing Pac Man! He told me “other kids were doing it”, in fact he said he learned to turn off the volume and when he got his work done he would still play games.  It seems to me like it would be hard to monitor the usage.

 

I really liked November’s article that focuses more on teaching teachers how to use the technology in the classroom! Without a shift in how we teach I agree, that it is a big waste to just hand teachers and students technology. Honestly, it would drive me crazy to teach and not have my kids looking right at me! (I feel for you Glenn!)  I would need some tools and training on how to be effective with technology, while I am learning some great tools in this class, and how to use technology with my staff, I believe it would be worth it to invest in teacher training at different grade levels to show the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom! #1toworld!