What is "Technology"?

"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three." ~Alice Kahn

I am kind of "wow-ed" at all the negative takes on technology. I think that technology has done great things in our world that is helping us accomplish things that we couldn't be able to do on our own. There are ways to get around the world in a day, ways to cure incurable diseases, etc. I think that people are focusing to much on the negative aspects of technology and not looking at the positive ones.


I have noticed in our WebCT conversations most people are focusing on the negative, so my challenge to you is to tell me why technology is beneficial to our society!


*Kristina

Using Movies as Resources

After class today I began thinking in the many ways we can use movies as resources. I also thought that if we use these movies to teach our students it may stimulate their minds better and help them to learn.
From this class I started thinking what I was going to do my major project on and I think it would be interesting, challenging, fun, and educational to make a movie. I also think that I can use this movie in my future teaching days. Now I just need to find an original topic.
*Kristina

Teacher Tools (Theme #2)

I really enjoyed viewing all the sites posted. The one I found to most relevant to myself was Cool Cat Teacher Blog I found this blog super interesting I thought it had many tooks on it that will help me to use everything that we are learning in ECMP 355 in the classroom. I think that technology is a huge asset in classrooms and that this site can help people to put technology in their classroom with the best of their ability.
*Kristina

Media Awareness Cont'd

Just this weekend I heard a good story that I feel like passing on because it really shows how much we should be careful with the internet. Now just to add on I think the internet is an awesome resource, we just need to be careful when using it. This story is a true story:

My friend was looking in to buying a condo in Vegas, so he was searching on the
internet. He came across a website (which if you saw looked totally real, if you
saw it you would think it was a professional company). He looked into getting
one and he contacted "the sales office" and went on to putting $25,000.00 down
on this condo he was going to be getting, which, was in the process of being
built. Moral of the story there are no condos being built and he is now down
$25,000.00.

So in reading this story I hope that you are all aware of the consequences when using the internet. Although it is a good resource and is tremendously useful in our world and society, I think we need to always be aware of where it is coming from!

*Kristina

Media Awareness

I found the media awareness class very important. I think that technology is a huge asset in a child's learning, but they must realize the boundaries around technology and they must know how to use technology to the best of the their ability. I am boggled at how many websites are existent that have completely false information false information on them, but they look so believable. I think that we need to know what we are searching and make sure that it is a reliable source. Also, I think we need to be aware of the fact that bullying does happen through technology and we have to be aware of these consequences and proactive so that these instances don't happen.
*Kristina

Technology in Early Education

The other day in our ECE class we were talking about the fact that teachers are always learning. Someone mentioned that teachers should especially be learning in technology because it is progressing so rapidly. A heated debate started up about whether or not we should be teaching technology at such a young age. Some people argued that we shouldn't because they should learn to use a card catalogue in the library and learn how to use books. The other side of the argument was yes, they should know how to use books, but they should also know how to use technology to the best of their advantage and the most efficient as possible.
> I agree with the second argument because with the rate technology is moving most of our daily activities can be accomplished more effectively with the assistance of technology. I also think that as technology continues advancing we will be using it more and more and if a student is not able to use a computer with the same skills as the other children then they will be disadvantaged. Just as children are today in reading, numbers, etc.

*any thoughts or comments?

Kristina

Creativity in Technology

Today in ECMP 355 we did powerpoint presentations. It was very interesting seeing how everyone made a totally different story out of the same pictures. Through this assignment I learned that out of a powerpoint presentation we can learn about drama, sounds, how to use powerpoint, etc. We don't only have to use powerpoint to report about a certain thing. I think doing this powerpoint was very beneficial because it has taught me another way that I can intergrate technology into everyday learnings in the classroom!
*Kristina