When the holidays come around I always count my blessings for technology.  People always want to come round and see family and friends that they haven't seen in a while but sometimes means and time never come together to make that happen.  That is why I am so appreciative of technologies like skype and facetime which allow you to interact with those family that couldn't make it.  I think of my friends in other states who I wish I could see during the holidays and thanks o technology I can talk with them face to face for as long as I want without being charged.  I remember the first time I was exposed to skype I could not believe that it was free.  Now that I use it all the time I try to get everyone I know to use it because it just allows you to cross the limits of communication when the limits of actual in person meetings are just too overwhelming.

So with the effects of Hurricane Sandy many people have been left without power.  This obviously leaves people without computers or television, but it makes you wonder about the other technologies people are without.  People are without power for their homes.  They have no gas for heat and no electricity.  They cannot use a stove to cook or hot plate or microwave.  Yes it stinks to live without a computer or television for a while, but that is nothingin comparison to the simple technologies we take for grantted every single day.  Things we do not even think about anymore because we have gotten so used to them, things we take for granted, these are the technologies that people miss the most.  It makes me think about the ipad and all the new smartphones and the like and how little they mean when people are really suffering from power failure.  That internet access and wifi would be the least of their worries.  Its a time right now to reevaluate what technology means and what technologies take priorities in our homes.  For me now, the most important technology is a generator, in case another natural disaster strikes so that my family is taken care of; not getting the next and newest iphone.

Reflection on the Digication process:

I like digication as a program.  I think that it makes creating a website and organizing data very simple and easy to use, especially for someone like me, who has always struggled with technology.  I love how organized it is into different tabs so that you can use one account for so many different purposes.  In the future as I move on from this class I can see myself creating an online portfolio with a different tab for each subject and several different lessons under each tab.  I can see myself creating an entire portfolio with my resume and teaching philosophy as well.  I just see this as such a useful tool for organizing all my information and creating a very user friendly and organized presentation of who I am as a teacher.

In another class I am taking the professor had us respond to whether we thought technology, computers in particular, had enough to them to be used as a continual motivational tool.  I thought I would like to share my response with the class:

I think that technology offers so many means and tools that there will always be something new to do with it.  Aside from the infinite resources that technology already offers, it is also constantly evolving. There is always a new feature or program coming out.  The only way technology is limited, is if the teacher attempting to use the technology is limited in her understanding of its workings or limited in her imagination of how to use i creatively.  I personally don't see either of these as a valid excuse.  There are so many professional development meetings on the instruction of technology; smartboards and computers.  There are also books and other teachers to show how to use certain websites or tools for your students' use.  One of the best things about teaching is the collaboration of the colleagues you work with. If you cannot think of a creative way to use the technology, it is guaranteed that one of your colleagues will.  Everyday I feel like I learn something new that I can do on my computer.  Whether it is creating a blog, a facebook account, a digication, etc.  There are limitless tools you can use through the computer to motivate your students.

With the free rice game I can see its merits in helping to build or assess students vocabulary.  It is a fun way for the children to test themselves without feeling the pressure from their teacher.  I do believe however, that this could become a distraction because it solely for the purpose of testing vocabulary.  It also does not give the teacher any control over the vocabulary being tested so it may or may not succeed to this end, particularly if the students become frustrated.  The "Get the Glass" game can be used to motivate students on the legal system, bail and prison, however I don't think that students should be encouraged to play in the role of the criminal and I do not see that this would be helpful beyond using for one lesson and only within this particular context.  I think the graphics are very impressive and that this could be very motivational but I do not see its relevance in a classroom.

As far as educational games go for meeting state and national teaching standards go I think it is possible provided that the game meets a very specific need of the lesson.  It must be used to accomplish something within the class otherwise it is just a wast of valuable time.

I was reflecting on the speaker we had in class the other day and everything she had been discussing with us.  For me it is so hard to swallow the idea of an online school for adults, let alone one for young children.  I cannot fathom how it would work.  It seems to me that it would have to be so much more complex to accommodate for all their needs and would need to have a parent be accommodating as well to sit next to their child and work with them when they are struggling.  I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for a child sitting at home in front of a computer who is simply not understanding addition.  She is trying to follow the instructions the teacher is saying but she is not fast enough to keep up and gets frustrated.  How does an online school account for the different rates that the children work/ How do they explain and pick up on all the children's misconceptions? How do they differentiate their instruction?  I just have so many questions and get anxious about the entire idea, as if it were my own child having to go through this.

As I was working on the project for class I was really thinking about all the ways you could use moviemaker in a classroom. Aside from motivation to spark interest, you could use it assess knowledge, gauge comprehension, connect different disciplines, etc. This medium just allows you to reach more learners such as, auditory and visual, and can be extended through in class activity to tactile learners. It just amazes me. Especially with the shift into the digital age it would be so interesting watching students create their own story maps and create plots and characters and slowly generate their own movies. It would just allow students who are so disinterested in the stagnant classroom environment to become creative and use this as an outlet for their interest.

I overheard my boss talking about his two year old son and his relationship to technology. Its similar to most. Young children just have an affinity for technology and a natural inclination toward it. Another co-worker of mine commented on how when he becomes a teenager he would know that world better than his father. This made me first reflect on the films we watched for class but also on if children can find this technology so user friendly then why can't adults? Children as young as two no how to identify the programs they like on a device and how to access it. When they get stuck they call someone over to fix the problem, observe how they do it and learn so they can handle the situation on their own the next time it occurs. If this system works for a two year old, why is it that it doesn't for adults? The matter is that it does work for adults; we are just too scared to expose ourselves to it. That is entering a new world of learning, different than anything we know or understand. Myself, I am intimidated by it and how much their is to learn. Everytime I start I feel so behind. I pride myself on at least attempting to learn. I think adults need to stop being scared of an inanimate object and at least attempt to understand the basics so that we do not have a wall between ourselves and the generation we are trying to teach.

This week I have been thinking a lot about parents' involvement in their children's technological evolution. The movie Growing Up Online struck me so much when they showed the fourteen year old girl posting pornographic images of herself online and her parents had no idea. Other parents would not even ask their children or seek this information of their children's lives out because of their own fear of technology. The scene with the young boy who committed suicide as a result of cyber bullying as well, while is parents had no idea what was going on. I do not understand how parents can allow their children to spend hours online and not even attempt to monitor what they are doing in the slightest. THis is what creates the biggest generation gap. It is not the technology itself but its parents fear of entering a world controlled by their children. A world where they know they are not welcome. I think this is absolutely necessary. It is terrifying to think how many people live with strangers in their own homes for fear of being rejected by their children.

I am not so sure what I expect from this class. I have taken a previous technology classes when I was going for my bachelors and I am sorry to say that, that class was a joke. She had us come to campus every other week and gave us a two minute (not a hyperbole) mini lesson on how to use a program, for example Kidpix. Now this also happened to be a professor without any classroom management skills. There was no order to the room and nobody cared any particular attention to the professor. Needless to say if you weren't sitting in close proximity to the professor you could not hear her instructions or the mini-mini lesson. So I was left to fend for myself in this class. Another sad thing about this class is that she "taught" us many programs that you had to pay to use, very few of them were publicly accessible. For teachers on a budget, who already have to spend their own money to supplement their classrooms, I think it is unfair to only learn to use programs that we also have to pay for ourselves. It is my hope that in this class I will actually be taught to use technology from my professor. I already see that the environment is much better and I can already feel a better relationship with the professor than I had in my previous class. I also hope to learn to use wide enough variety of programs that I can choose useful and valuable resources without dipping into already limited funds.