Thing 1

Although I know that technology is wonderful and students love their ipods, facebook pages, etc. I'm not sure that we are quite ready to utilize all of this technology in the classroom. We offer our students an environment where they feel safe and able to learn, and already offer on-line webites like edline and parent portal for students to see class announcements and keep track of their progress in classes. However, many students and parents do not have access to a computer at home and are not able to use the technology we have available now. If we start requiring students to text message other countries, subscribe to podcasts, and post on wiki's and blogs are we as a school district going to supply students with the cell phones and ipods they don't have? How will the parents feel when we ask our students to utilize in class the cell phones they do not what their children to have? Will our students who don't have this technology that we are going to use so regularly feel inferior to their classmates that do? As a staff our school district has provided ORCA for staff to collaborate professionally and share documents, are we going to have to read each other's blogs, wikis and listen to each others podcasts just to stay up to date?

My biggest fear with all of this technology is that we are going to spend so much time behind a computer and communicating through text and e-mail that students will not learn the social skills they need to interact with people in person. When they can listen to a podcast instead of going to a class I wonder are the students really getting all of the information in the way EACH of them needs to learn and will I be out of a job soon?

Technology can be wonderful and we should use it and teach it because our students will be working with this technology and more by the time they get jobs. However, I enter with caution because with as many perks as technology has there are just as many concerns. I hope this class will enlighten me in ways to use this technology in a positive way to enhance learning while keeping school a safe environment for all students.