Week of April 15th Blog Quiz

Task #1:
The most amazing part of the Baltimore County Public School article for me was the fact they were able to put servers and set up logins for teachers in 169 schools in only 2.5 weeks. I think so many times we hesitate to incorporate the latest technology into our schools because we think it would be just too difficult and time-consuming. If anything, this article should show us we need not be afraid and use such time constraints as issues in fighting the latest technology.
As for abolishing high schools - I would love to see more useof competency-based courses/schools. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of my life experiences helped me "test out" of certain classes because I already know enough about them from my own experience and my own learning outside of the classroom. I also agree we should allow younger students the opportunity to work if they so desire. Why not? We have laws which protect them from long work days and tiny salaries. If they are capable, willing, and motivated to try their hand at work why not let them? Farmers don't tell their children they are too young to work on the farm. We don't tell our children they are too young to help around the house - in fact we encourage it. Why should this be any different? And most importantly, I agree we sometimes teach our children nothing in a 13-year compulsory education does is make our students hate school.

My favorite line in the article is the one that says: "learning that benefits all students--is necessarily individualized ans self-paced. This is the elephone in the classroom from which no teacher can hide".

Task #2:
I am not surprised by Will's comments about this latest degree on "social computing". He encourages us to do our learning on-line so why would he be encouraged and excited by a university degree that does the same things we can do for ourself without the constraints of a university. Think about it - he says why know the presidents of the United States when you can use your cell phone to access the information on the internet. All of the things he feels we can do for ourselves are a waste of time for us to try and teach students. We need to teach them how to access the information - that is all they need to know. So, I can understand he would feel the best place to learn about social computing is on any one of the websites which deal with this subject. I have to say I agree with him. We already spend too much of our time teaching students what they already know - or what they already know how to access.

Task #3:
Barb and I are going to do an iMovie and we are going to use still photographs with voice overs to accomplish this movie. I am going to keep the subject matter a secret at this moment. It will be something of interest and significance to all of us who are soon-to-be ELA teachers. We will be working on it on Wednesday and I am excited about the project.

We will be learning from this project since neither of us has a clue how to put together an iMovie with stills and voice overs. We will need lots of help from Ray.