The world of wiki and I have been in a rollercoaster relationship over the last week or so since this assignment was given to us. I started by not knowing anything about what a wiki was; to now fully understanding how they can be utilized. O'Reilly's article really put into the non-wiki users terms by explaining the difference between what the web once was, and what the web has become. In a way, I feel like the internet has grown up with me over the years. It's amazing to think about my elementary days where the simplest of programs were so unique, never in a million years would I have thought about tagging a bunch of friends in a picture. That would have been foreign language to someone back in 1995. Now, it's something we do in our everyday lives! Wikis allow us to make changes and update information. Being a terrible peer evaluator to this day, it is extremely hard for me to truly grasp and utilize wikis if it means I have to evaluate another individuals performance. Unless something is set in stone on how it's supposed to be (in addition to my interest in the topic), it is useless to me as a tool for evaluation. On the other hand, for educators I feel wiki's can be a very useful tool. Below you can find the link to my restructured wiki.
After some review, I realize I did this assignment wrong. I had the right idea, but thankfully it was pointed out and revisions have been made and further elaboration on the article has been successfully added to my Wiki. You can view this by clicking here.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Week 1 Reading Reflection
Introduction Based on Personal Experiences with Technology
Growing up and experiencing what it was like to live all over the country and world (father was in the Army), I was fortunate enough to experience the transformation of technology. From the type-writer to the huge computer to the laptop. It’s amazing to me how far technology has come over the last 10-12 years. I am only 25, but I still remember playing on the large computers in 4th grade playing Oregon Trail while having no idea what the future of technology would turn into. I also remember in 7th grade using dial up to sign onto America Online (AOL). Now we can connect to the internet from anywhere in the matter of a few seconds and it seems like everyone we know has a computer. Throughout my experiences in schools, it’s amazing how many schools do not use technology even when it is funded by the school. Computers sitting around in storage rooms, programs not being used, this ultimately hurts the student because whether a teacher likes it or not, our society is becoming reliant on technology. I do not believe that is a good thing, but I do believe everyone including teachers should find a happy-medium when using technology in the classroom. The articles indicate what our society is turning into, we are so reliant on technology now that not only does it help us communicate virtually, it also hurts our social skills.
Article Review
Out of the two articles, I found valid points in both but I have questions for both authors. Reigeluth and Joseph explain how educators have to teach a classroom of 25-30 kids and go at the same pace when in all reality, that’s not what happens in the real world. For example, if someone on commission makes four times profit for the company another co-worker makes, they are going to be paid out differently based on their work. Table 1 is an excellent example of how much change is happening. The Industrial Age vs. Information Age shows how much different society has changed. An example of this would be restaurants. Each town only had so many restaurants their population could eat, now there are restaurants all over to the point where if somebody wants to eat elsewhere because they serve the customer the best, they can do so. This is an example of “power to the people.” This is explained by Boss being “king” compared to now the customer being “king.” Reigeluth and Joseph explain how society is undergoing massive changes beyond just technology, but focus more on technology transformation of teaching and learning.
The Postman article insists we cannot teach values using technology which I completely disagree with. There are so many good things about technology and although there are some negatives in technology, there are negatives in every aspect of education and life in general. A negative I experienced with an educator that was not technology based was an out of shape man that knew nothing about physical education teaching a class on how to stay healthy. Who is to say technology cannot assist in a students development outside of just teaching fundamentals of learning? Technology should not be based solely off what we see on the news. Negative aspects of life do not all happen using technology, there are many positive signs of human development with the use of technology.
Conclusion
The use of technology is frowned upon by many unfortunately because a large group of people believe technology consists of Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and other social media outlets. There are some excellent educational websites out there. There are also amazing journals articles and library systems that can not only assist in the development of students, but assist in the development of an educator. An educator can learn new methods on how to get through to their students by using different teaching methods, different evaluation systems, and obtain great information through the use of technology. I disagree when I read an article that focuses heavily on the negatives when my belief is the positives are not emphasized and used to their fullest extent.
Growing up and experiencing what it was like to live all over the country and world (father was in the Army), I was fortunate enough to experience the transformation of technology. From the type-writer to the huge computer to the laptop. It’s amazing to me how far technology has come over the last 10-12 years. I am only 25, but I still remember playing on the large computers in 4th grade playing Oregon Trail while having no idea what the future of technology would turn into. I also remember in 7th grade using dial up to sign onto America Online (AOL). Now we can connect to the internet from anywhere in the matter of a few seconds and it seems like everyone we know has a computer. Throughout my experiences in schools, it’s amazing how many schools do not use technology even when it is funded by the school. Computers sitting around in storage rooms, programs not being used, this ultimately hurts the student because whether a teacher likes it or not, our society is becoming reliant on technology. I do not believe that is a good thing, but I do believe everyone including teachers should find a happy-medium when using technology in the classroom. The articles indicate what our society is turning into, we are so reliant on technology now that not only does it help us communicate virtually, it also hurts our social skills.
Article Review
Out of the two articles, I found valid points in both but I have questions for both authors. Reigeluth and Joseph explain how educators have to teach a classroom of 25-30 kids and go at the same pace when in all reality, that’s not what happens in the real world. For example, if someone on commission makes four times profit for the company another co-worker makes, they are going to be paid out differently based on their work. Table 1 is an excellent example of how much change is happening. The Industrial Age vs. Information Age shows how much different society has changed. An example of this would be restaurants. Each town only had so many restaurants their population could eat, now there are restaurants all over to the point where if somebody wants to eat elsewhere because they serve the customer the best, they can do so. This is an example of “power to the people.” This is explained by Boss being “king” compared to now the customer being “king.” Reigeluth and Joseph explain how society is undergoing massive changes beyond just technology, but focus more on technology transformation of teaching and learning.
The Postman article insists we cannot teach values using technology which I completely disagree with. There are so many good things about technology and although there are some negatives in technology, there are negatives in every aspect of education and life in general. A negative I experienced with an educator that was not technology based was an out of shape man that knew nothing about physical education teaching a class on how to stay healthy. Who is to say technology cannot assist in a students development outside of just teaching fundamentals of learning? Technology should not be based solely off what we see on the news. Negative aspects of life do not all happen using technology, there are many positive signs of human development with the use of technology.
Conclusion
The use of technology is frowned upon by many unfortunately because a large group of people believe technology consists of Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and other social media outlets. There are some excellent educational websites out there. There are also amazing journals articles and library systems that can not only assist in the development of students, but assist in the development of an educator. An educator can learn new methods on how to get through to their students by using different teaching methods, different evaluation systems, and obtain great information through the use of technology. I disagree when I read an article that focuses heavily on the negatives when my belief is the positives are not emphasized and used to their fullest extent.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)