Week+3+(January+25,+2010).

The reading this week was a blog entry by Will Richardson ([]) about how technology SHOULD BE changing the way we think about teaching. He asserts that we should not only be thinking about how to make the internet more accessible and how to make more computers available, but how we should change the actual curriculum so that it integrates technology in a more dynamic, realistic way.

Here are some points that I found interesting:

 * * The You Tube video about using an ipod touch to teach reading really blew my mind. It is so interactive and user friendly that I wonder how kids who grow up with this will ever be able to go back to reading traditional books. Check out this video that I found about a school in Australia that is launching a fully-digital teacher-learner experiment. I wonder what the results will be. I think they are going to be positive. || media type="youtube" key="UplZVyPS-bo" height="344" width="425" ||
 * I was also surprised that he believes that all cell phone will be iPhones in 5 years. It makes me think about my simple, little flip phone that I have. All I use it for is texting and phoning and I feel that I'm too dependent on it. How much more will be phone become part of my life if I have web access, hundreds of apps and possible uploading and downloading capabilities? I'm not against the idea of using the technology, but I feel that I need to think about the implications of the role the technology will play in my life (ie: will it make me interact with people more or less? Will it help me in my career as a teacher or will I become too dependent on it?)

Final thought...
image accessed at: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_end_is_not_for_a_while.png
 * [[image:the_end_is_not_for_a_while.png]] || The more I learn about technology from the readings and in class, the less intimidated I feel about making it part of my day to day life. I find the software we're using to be interesting and relevant. However, there is a sort of "doomsday" mentality that our society has linked with the use and normalisation of technology, but I wonder if we could look at it another way. Perhaps technology is going to be the catalyst to some other, very positive, world changing phenomenon. Perhaps it WILL eventually lead us to world peace, to a better understanding of different cultures and to a way of life that nourishes collective thought, sharing and action. While there have been many movies about the terrors that technology will eventually lead us to, wouldn't it be interesting to see one where the world has come together and learned to live in peace, BECAUSE of the implementation of new technology? I guess that doesn't really provide an exciting enough plot, though. Who wants to see 2 hours of sharing, conversation and thoughtfulness? ||