My Aha's

I think the biggest impact that this class has had on me is the my change in philosphy of technology for education. I tended to think of it mainly as a functional tool for education, but not as something that could be used to enhance education. I think my earlier concept mainly came from completing assignments for classes and conducting general work in my job as a librarian. However, I never thought of it as a mechanism which could be used to assist students in learning concepts better. As a result, I think I will start looking for more ways to use technology to assist students in the learning process. I have in the past had a tendency to look at technology as a threat because I was afraid it was have negative consequences on my job as a librarian. I believed that if students relied too much on technology it would make my position as obsolete. As a result of taking this class, I am starting to begin not fearing technology in the field of librarianship.

I enjoyed this class because it exposed me to other technologies. I was a judge for a history fair and wondered how the students were creating these movies on their computers. After the Window Movie Maker demo, I realized their methods. As a result I did not feel to far behind the younger students.

As far as the blog is concerned. I have generally not liked writing a journal. However, when I realized that my ideas were being read by other individuals who were not affiliated with the class, I began to get more interested. I started to believe that individuals were listening to my voice and taking it seriously. As a result, I want to continue blogging in the future.

Technology and K-12 education

After reading Chapters 7, 8, and 9 in Romano’s textbook, I think some of the proposed changes could be implemented. One of his proposals was to enhance those schools that already have high SAT scores. In my opinion this would be very controversial because these institutions will generally have students who are already from a higher socio-economic background. As a result, these students will not have suffered as a result of the digital divide. These students would also have a higher potential to plateau in their results. Therefore, we would not see as much improvement overall because they have been exposed to a better education experience.

In my opinion, I think it would be a lot more interesting to test these technological improvements on schools which have low performing students. As a result, we would get a chance to see how technology enhanced classrooms would impact these students. If there is a definite improvement with these students then we could pursue it in other schools.

I really get frustrated with the continued reliance on the federal government to improve schools. The government has provides schools with a lot of money and mandates for improvement of students. The K-12 system generally becomes a bottomless pit when it comes to money. The money goes in but there is not much improvement in the student’s education. Students are still not able to write or solve math equations when they enter higher education. As a result, I would really like to see some tests done in low performing schools first before these programs are expanded to other schools and requests for more funds for higher education. If this does not work, then we need to rethink what are goals and objectives for K-12 education.

My basic opinion of technology and K-12 education is that technology can only be part of the answer, it also requires student who want to learn and the support of their parents.