What a Great Class!!

The final for our class was so wonderful! I think that everyone's projects really addressed how technology can help our students learn. I am so glad that we did a "display" type class so that I could look at each technology and get ideas from them. I'm just SO EXCITED to use all of these new toys in my classroom!

I've always felt that most of my students don't like writing. There are a few students that love it, but it seems that most of them just groan when I say that it's writing time. I think that most of these techs could REALLY help my students become excited to write and present their writing!

So many ideas are running through my head! I can definitely say that technology has helped my own cognition! I just keep thinking and thinking and trying to come up with new ideas and new ways to engage my students and improve their learning and my own teaching.

I'm rambling a bit...I'm just SO EXCITED!!

Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better

I FINALLY finished my book and I LOVED it!

I feel that Clive Thompson has the same point of view that I do about technology. He understands that it has it downfalls, but he sees the amazing things it's capable of too! From the very beginning with his explanation of Centaurs, he had me hooked! I've always loved chess...I'm terrible at it, but I still think it's fascinating. I remember watching Searching for Bobby Fischer as a kid and I thought it was such a good movie. I'm a little surprised that I didn't already know about Centaurs, but they totally make sense. Having a machine perform the logical moves while you employ the creative side is genius! 

The book certainly made me think. It gave me ideas for my students and for collaborating with my team. It helped me become more aware of what's going on in the world as well. One of my favorite stories that Thompson relayed was about Ahmed Abulhassan. It was incredible how one Twitter account could supply several hospitals in Egypt with needed supplies!

The last point I want to make is that it was really great how Thompson spoke of technology throughout history. When he explained that Socrates was worried about the written word eroding human memory, all I could think was YES! This is exactly what people say about our current technology. While Socrates' worries were partially well-founded because there was some memory lost, just think of where our world would be now without writing!

And now for the favorite quote...

How should you respond when you get powerful new tools for finding answers? Think of harder questions.

Reference
Thompson, Clive (2013). Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better. Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition. 

Thank you Technology!!

Running is not my favorite thing. I do it because I love to participate in triathlons...and for some reason running is part of it. I guess that's why they call them TRIathlons. 

Anyway....I was running the other day and I felt like I was going to die! I didn't want to run anymore, but I still needed to run another mile to meet my goal for the day!

Thanks to the two items below, I made it! 

I even finished STRONG!!

The water was fantastic, but the shuffle is what really got me through that run. While I was dying and wishing that I could just stop, a song started to play on my shuffle. I hadn't actually heard it before, and I know that's weird cause it's on my shuffle, but a lot of my music is actually my brother's. SHHHHH I listened to the song about three times just on that one run.

What does this have to do with technology in the classroom? Well, I think that there are times when my students feel that they are dying and that they just can't keep up. They feel overwhelmed or they feel bored with school. Technology can save them! I just have to remember that it doesn't always have to be a complicated form of technology. Sometimes the simpler the better. Just like one song inspired me to run, a simple technology can inspire my students to learn.

Just in case your curious...here's that song.

The Way of Kings

"I would not have you studying this if there were no point to it," Jasnah said, opening up another of her own books. "Too many scholars think of research as purely a cerebral pursuit. If we do nothing with the knowledge we gain, then we have wasted our study. Books can store information better than we can - what we do that books cannot is interpret. So if one is not going to draw conclusion, then one might as well just leave the information in the texts."
~Brandon Sanderson The Way of Kings~

So...I've been reading this book. (I've also been reading my EdTech book too, just so you know.) It's a ginormous book, but I was SO excited when I read this quote. All I could think was, "This goes with what we've been talking about in EdTech! :) I completely agree with the quote by the way. I have loved learning, theorizing, and discussing the affects of technology on our brains and society. I feel that we are coming to the point where it's time to start doing something about it. Yet, I know that we will continue to pursue more information. It's a circle; read, study, theorize, interpret, do, and repeat.

Actually, now that I think about it more, it's not really a circle. I think we are doing several of the steps at once on many different levels. Although, when we really want to understand one thing in particular we'll use those steps. 

Anyway, when we initially started this class, I was honestly a little disappointed. I thought we would be getting straight into doing projects with technology, learning new technology tools, and figuring out how to use technology in the classroom. I'm glad that we started where we did though. You have to have a foundation first. Study the topic and then do something with it. :)

Technology and Me

I realized today that I never posted about my findings for how much I use technology! I have to laugh a little bit, because the way that I tracked my usage was with an app. TECHNOLOGY! Most of my usage was with text messaging, email, facebook, buzzfeed, and reading. I use my iPad to read all of my books for school and I use my iPhone to read my scriptures each night. I realized that I am using technology almost the entire day. I wake up to the alarm on my phone each day. I use my phone to listen to podcasts and music every time I'm in the car. I'm on my laptop the entire time that I'm in school. I'm also checking my phone, and occasionally using my iPad during school too. Once I get home from school, I always use my laptop for an hour or more to do homework (and to play around a bit, let's be honest). Then I use my iPad to watch a couple of shows on Netflix. Finally, the whole time I'm home my phone is never too far away from me. I check it off and on to see if I have any messages, facebook notifications, or emails. WOW! That's a lot of TECHNOLOGY!

The first step is to admit you have a problem...

I love technology

but not as much as you, you see

but I still love technology

ALWAYS AND FOREVER!

Technology and Values

Wow! I absolutely loved watching Digital Nation! What an interesting and thoughtful approach to the technology phenomenon. Truly technology is taking over the world and it is affecting each person, nation, and culture in different ways. I'm so glad that they looked at technology in an honest way. It was acknowledged that the internet is having a negative influence on many of us, from feeding addictions to simply being distracted. However, it was also noted that technology is having an amazing affect on the world in positive ways as well. I really like the way that Korea was teaching its students that the internet can be an effective tool when used properly. 

Before watching Digital Nation I made this word cloud of the different values that I believe the world needs.

I feel that technology can either help the world continue to strive towards these values or it can destroy them. The defining factor, however, is us. We are the ones that will decide how technology will affect the world. To me, it's all about balance. We need to learn how to balance our time on technology with our time doing other things. We also need to learn when to simply put away the technology that we might be using. I believe that we are trying to do this.

Media Consumption

It wasn't exactly a surprise to me that adolescents use a significant amount of media. I've known it for some time. What surprised me was the different amount consumed by Whites, African-Americans, and Hispanics. I will admit that I had different assumptions on this. For some reason I always expected that Whites used more media, not the other way around. I think that there are a lot of different reasons why I thought this. I feel like I need to look at them more closely. 

One assumption that I had, and maybe still have, is that there are more White people who are well-off than there are in the minorities. This presumption led me to believe that more White people could afford to have all the little technological toys. Without as much access to technology, I figured that the minorities wouldn't use technology as much. I wonder what further research would show?

Ok, now I'm going to change tracks completely. I just want to say that I'm excited to see how much technology I use today and tomorrow. Already I am using my computer to write on my blog. I used my phone this morning to see what time it was before I got out of bed. Once again, I know that adolescents are probably one of the highest consumers of technology, but I think I may have them beat. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm so forgetful? I'll come back to that after I see just how much technology I use. :)

Cognition and the Brain Reflection

Our brains have a collection of neurons that are constantly trying to find other neurons. They like to make connections to each other. These connections are called synapses. More than one neuron can be connected to another. When neurons make these synapses it means our brains are learning something new, or connecting something we already knew to something new.

We can create these synapses when we read, when we watch someone else do something, when we write, when we try to do something new, when we listen to others and many other ways. If we really want to learn and remember something well, then we need to create stronger synapses. This is done by focusing on that one topic. For example, if a dancer wants to perfect a dance routine, she must practice it over and over. If she stops that practice, eventually she will not be able to perform that routine as well. While she has practiced it, her brain has created many synapses. When she stops practicing and starts doing something else then her brain is making other synapses and the previous synapses that she made will begin to disintegrate.

These synapses are why we have little games to help us remember things. Repeating something over and over in our head helps us to create more synapses. Creating pneumonic devices also helps us to create more synapses and remember something. Relating a picture or word to something to help us remember also creates more synapses. We just have to be careful that the connections that we are making correct. :)