Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Blog Post # 3

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

picture of computer with an text explanation


In Michael Wesche's Video, A Vision of Students Today, I was very lost in the way it started off. However, after watching the video through, I realized that many of the statements written, relate to me. For instance,the ratio of students to teachers in ma past classes, were outrageous. Last semester, I took a economics class that had more than 100 students present. I was so aggravated when I realized, I was not going to receive much help from my professor. I went to the professor's office during office hours, to get help with an assignment, only to find a line of students waiting for help also. After about 45 minutes, I gave up and returned home to get prepared for my next class. Situations such as these are very discouraging and eventually becomes a problem. Its also scary to actually raise your hand to ask questions with more than 100 students directing their attention on me.

From viewing this video once before, I agreed with the statements about the price we spend on books and computers. I find it to become very stressful, having to spend over 600 dollars on books that I hardly ever open. When its time to sell the books back I never get over 150 dollars back; thats if they decide to buy of the books back. When it comes to buying computers there are advantages and more disadvantages. In my opinion, technology, helps students in great ways of research, note taking and many ways of preparing for the future ahead of us. We as students spend more time socializing online than anything. I feel that if teachers made some classes a little more interesting using more exciting ways to incorporate technology into our lessons, we as students will probably actually pay more attention and be interested in learning by choice rather than by requirement.

"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines


Mrs. Kelly Hines wrote an article entitled "It's Mot About the Technology" that was very interesting. She made four points in her article which were: Teachers Must be Learners, Learning and Teaching are Not the Same, Technology is Useless Without Good Teaching, and Be a 21st Century Teacher Without the Technology. the section that I liked the most was,Teachers must be learners, Mrs. Hines stated, "As teachers, most of us have completed a specialised teacher preparation program. We have passed a test of proficiency in basic educational theory and child psychology......If you put them all in one room, you will probably find that their experiences in these areas were very different. Yet, they are all teaching children today. Teachers today must be perpetual learners who are invested in their professions".....This is true in todays society. Teachers must be prepared to always learn new things to keep up with whats going on in the classroom. How can one maintain the label "Teacher" if they are not learning the new information to actually teach anyone anything.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Techologically Illierate Teacher?

Check out Karl Fisch's article at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html. It is filled with interesting statements. Mr Fisch talked about teachers being able to get in front of a class and teach technology, when we they are technological illiterate themselves. This segment of his post was very interesting to me because I feel that no one is able to give very accurate and legit information if they are not knowledgeable of the information them self. There is no way you can learn something as you teach it, its not going to work out successfully.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count


 social media count picture




To see the rate these counts increase is so mind blowing. It is a must do process of keeping up with technology in todays world because technology will increase more in the future at a much faster rate than it is doing so now. The only Media Count that I really questioned is the comments made on Facebook within the first few seconds. I personally thought the numbers would actually be higher. Facebook is a huge social network and there are not to many people who are not Facebook users. I remember when Dr. Strange reported from the questionares, that only two people out of our entire Tuesday/Thursday class, did not have a Facebook account. So this is another reason why i personally would assume a count such as this one would actually be much higher within the first minute.

2 comments:

  1. Dear KaShondra,

    You are so right about the outrageous cost of textbooks! It is ridiculous. I think colleges should have a "textbook rental" program where we can check out textbooks, free of charge, for a semester and return them at the end of the semester! If you return the book ruined, THEN you can be required to pay for it.

    I agree with you about how you were surprised that the Facebook comments per second were not higher. Maybe the Social Media Count is a little outdated.

    I enjoyed reading your post,

    Elizabeth Brooks

    ReplyDelete
  2. "I feel that if teachers made some classes a little more interesting using more exciting ways to incorporate technology into our lessons, we as students will probably actually pay more attention and be interested in learning by choice rather than by requirement." This is a central point of the video that many students either missed or did not discuss.

    You are still having problems with your writing. Once again I will send you specifics. Please go to the Writing Center. Then advise me whether they are helping. There are other sources of help as well.

    ReplyDelete