All I can say is WOW! It is amazing to be alive during this rapidly changing, developing world right now and be able to see what's happening, but at the same time, my head is spinning. Just think: pretty soon CDs are going to be obsolete soon. Everyone is downloading music and songs from the internet now directly onto their ipods. I was just looking online at a band's website, and you can buy it right from the comfort of your home and then download the whole album right then and there. no more music CDs, and no more CDs with software and stuff on it. I feel like we jumped from floppies to those little cd keys, and CDs were just a blur--they are practically a thing of the past just like floppies. no more cd players, dvd players... everyone is watching movies on their DVR now or Pay Per View, and have you seen that website alloftv.net?? OMG check it out... you can watch all your favorite TV shows on that website if you missed it during the week--you don't even need the DVR/cable...a laptop will do for all your entertainment needs. WHich is why that is going to be my next purchase. I want a laptop, something I can carry with me whereever I go, when I travel, but also use in the comfort of my home too. Its not big and bulky like those stupid desktops...
I foresee that everyone will have laptops soon, and then those little blackberries. Look at the ipod craze: its just one step up from the ipod really....and cell phones are getting better too so you can check email from website on your cell now. Everyone is going to have a cell phone/blackberry/laptop all-in-one within the next 10 years, maybe even 5, who knows??? In this country and parts of Europe it could easily be 5 years...It is unfathomably amazing!!! (hmmm, that is a good word...i think i just made it up)
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Classrooms without Books
The traditional teacher in me is thinking whoa! Hold on! How in the world can I teach English without books? How can I get my kids to read if they can't even take the book home? (which is happening in an urban school I observe right now) so I keep thinking, instead of panicking and being outraged at the system, I need to rise to the challenge and figure out how I am going to teach the ELA skills to kids for 1-so they can excel on the Regents Exam, and 2-so they can develop a lifelong love of reading and learn that writing is a powerful tool of communication.
But first, I think teachers need to step out of the box of the old ways and learn new ways to assess students. We say kids are not reading anymore--sure they aren't reading what we expect--which is the old cover to cover paperbook--but this is old school. In this new world, the Read/Write Web, the Flat World of internet and high tech media devices--kids are doing so much more stuff that confounds the older generation(teachers). We look at their ipods and scoff at them, tell them to turn them off--why are we so angry? Because they are so far above us in this new world. We don't know how to use ipods so we scoff at the whole notion and try to sweep it under the rug and go back to our chalkboards.
But we will never reach kids that way. We need to get to them at a medium they can understand--and that medium is through ipods and cell phones with cameras, glossy magazines, TV, video games, internet societies like myspace, facebook, google, Youtube, yahoo, wikipedia--virtual realities where people are chatting with others all the way across the world from their bedrooms--and not just chatting--viewing too. As teachers, we need to "face the music" and admit that we don't know as much as our students now because this new generation has grown up with all this information at their fingertips--with the touch of a button and NOT through opening a PAPERbook. These books are history now!
We need to redefine what literacy is. What literacy is to our students now is understanding what is out there on the web-- how to decipher truth from fiction, who is just trying to sell us something versus someone who just wants to get the truth out there. We need to teach our students to be critical thinkers and viewers--to critically analyze everything that passes in front of their nose (and it's alot!) Reading the media is a new type of literacy we need to be teaching with our students.
Media literacy is a favorite medium to students. It is highly engaging and highly motivating so they will learn naturally because it is fun. It is essential to teach them to read the media critically to understand the whys and hows behind everything being sent out in front of people. If we want people to be productive citizens in the world, we need to teach them how to use these new technologies to their advantage.
It isn't about paper and pens anymore. It is about typing and shorthand and video--we have enterned a new world of literacy--the Reading/Writing on the Web to a flat world of listeners and responders.
But first, I think teachers need to step out of the box of the old ways and learn new ways to assess students. We say kids are not reading anymore--sure they aren't reading what we expect--which is the old cover to cover paperbook--but this is old school. In this new world, the Read/Write Web, the Flat World of internet and high tech media devices--kids are doing so much more stuff that confounds the older generation(teachers). We look at their ipods and scoff at them, tell them to turn them off--why are we so angry? Because they are so far above us in this new world. We don't know how to use ipods so we scoff at the whole notion and try to sweep it under the rug and go back to our chalkboards.
But we will never reach kids that way. We need to get to them at a medium they can understand--and that medium is through ipods and cell phones with cameras, glossy magazines, TV, video games, internet societies like myspace, facebook, google, Youtube, yahoo, wikipedia--virtual realities where people are chatting with others all the way across the world from their bedrooms--and not just chatting--viewing too. As teachers, we need to "face the music" and admit that we don't know as much as our students now because this new generation has grown up with all this information at their fingertips--with the touch of a button and NOT through opening a PAPERbook. These books are history now!
We need to redefine what literacy is. What literacy is to our students now is understanding what is out there on the web-- how to decipher truth from fiction, who is just trying to sell us something versus someone who just wants to get the truth out there. We need to teach our students to be critical thinkers and viewers--to critically analyze everything that passes in front of their nose (and it's alot!) Reading the media is a new type of literacy we need to be teaching with our students.
Media literacy is a favorite medium to students. It is highly engaging and highly motivating so they will learn naturally because it is fun. It is essential to teach them to read the media critically to understand the whys and hows behind everything being sent out in front of people. If we want people to be productive citizens in the world, we need to teach them how to use these new technologies to their advantage.
It isn't about paper and pens anymore. It is about typing and shorthand and video--we have enterned a new world of literacy--the Reading/Writing on the Web to a flat world of listeners and responders.
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