MAIT Response #4

At Dr. Robert's Tuesday (July 24, 2012) lecture what most interested me besides his great research was how divided the room seemed to be concerning technology and the classroom. There were some people that seemed reluctant to see a positive in including technology in the classroom. There were also some people that seemed all too eager to include technology in their classroom. I understand both sides. As someone who has had to figure out high-tech classroom equipment on her own, I know how intimidating  new things can be. I also understand the paranoia of being responsible for what students are looking at on-line when you are supposed to be doing something educational. Yet, I find myself willing to learn and try out new things, which is why my students do oral/visual presentations with Prezi instead of MS Powerpoint. In an age when 18 month old children are being entertained by ipads and not physical books teachers need to find a balance between keeping up with the times and exposing children to even more screen time.

Speaking of screen time, the NY Times article really worried me. I have to say that I do not believe in on-line classes at any level (I know, I know I'm fulfilling an on-line lass requirement as I type). The concept of "click-click credits" is worrisome.To have struggling and unmotivated students involved in on-line classes seems, in my opinion, especially irresponsible. The fact that the conclusion of the article reveals that a on-line course company provided money for an election campaign makes me doubly skeptical as to the benefits of on-line courses. However, as I mentioned above I am all for technology in the classroom as long as it is applicable.

Here are four tech resources I can comment on:

http://www.donorschoose.org was first brought to my attention by my cousin an elementary teacher in East L.A. In a era when teachers must supplement classroom necessities due to budget cuts every little bit counts and with this website it does not all have to come from a caring teacher's pocket.

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/  is a great way to make rubrics. I personally like to edit the rubrics to meet my needs. I find the format and the categories useful.

http://docs.google.com/ is not exactly my cup of tea, because I am not completely comfortable with using it. However, having this "cloud" and making students use it cuts down on accessibility issues before essay turn in or presentations.

http://www.easybib.com  can and does make as many mistakes as a human being can. It may make students feel better about a citations page or it maybe faster for them if they waited until the last minute, but it could hurt their grade and it doesn't teach them to do the work correctly.

In the future (as in next week) I fully plan to use donorschoose to round out my classroom supplies. I also plan to use rubistar with oral presentations and other projects in my classes. Furthermore, I will continue to ask students to use Prezi instead of Powerpoint.