In the last month I’ve corresponded with several children in New Zealand. In the last month I’ve received comments on my work from a student in Thailand. In the last month, I’ve watched students from Kansas challenge children in my class to a debate. How else would this all be possible without the technology that the computer has provided my class and I? Easy, it would be impossible. Through my blog and wiki I have learned about other countries and what it is like there. The world seems like such a big and vast place but somehow the computer makes this big and vast place seems slightly smaller. Corresponding with people from around the world has made my schoolwork actually interesting for once, which is a shocker. Suddenly, there is some form of surprise in my day. Who knows if I will sign onto my blog and have a comment from somebody in England, Australia or Asia? There are no words to describe that besides plain old exciting.
The real question is why shouldn’t we use technology in school? The whole world is moving over to computers but yet kids are still sitting in desks writing with pencils and pens in school. When my peers and I go and get jobs what will we be working with? The answer is technology. If school is supposed to prepare us for the future then why are we not using technology in the classroom if technology is the future? School administrators all over the world are too stuck on their old ways. They are unwilling to move over to this new way of thinking because the internet is “scary”. The internet is anything but scary. It is a roadway for new and exciting opportunities if used the correct way. Administrator’s unwillingness to change will lead to failure in America when children show up for their jobs the first day and don’t know how to click a mouse (okay, maybe not that far but still I hope my point gets across.)
Some days I sit at my computer and think, what is the point of writing a blogs since nobody is reading it anyway? I think that the expectations for writing blogs are too high. Everybody expects a thousand people from around the world to read their blog. I think the more important part of blogging is for your peers and teachers to read your blog. I have read the blogs of kids in my class that I hardly talk to. I have learned things about my peers that I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read their blog. It seems like students are more willing to open up on their blog and wiki. You can open up and share hard things that you probably wouldn’t be comfortable saying in person. I’ve learned so many interesting things about the people who surround me everyday in the classroom. I’ve learned more about them on a blog then I have in 8 years in a classroom.
Entries (RSS)
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
“I’ve learned more about them on a blog then I have in 8 years in a classroom.” …and I have learned more about students because it allows me to “hear” students that would otherwise remain silent in the classroom.