Digital Badge # L

For this final blog post, we read chapter 12. I was reading this chapter, a few things stuck out to me.

The first thing was one on one laptop computing. This are something that I hope more and more schools start to integrate. Unfortunately, While I think most schools do have the want to convert their schools to one on one laptop computing schools, no one has the funds for this. My mother, who is an art teacher for Eastside Elementary School in Clewiston, Florida, wants to get a grant to fund a set of maybe 25-30 labtops on a cart, so that all of the enrichment teachers (Art, Music, P.E., and Library/Media Center) can use them in their classrooms. Which is a bit difficult and tedious. So some schools just stick with one or a few computer labs instead of a laptop for each student.

Speaking of grants, this was also a section in our book. As I have just said, it's tedious and difficult to write and obtain a grant. Both of my parents are teachers and have written numerous grants in order to get things for their classrooms. My mother has gotten supplies like canvas', clay, paint, and other art supplies. My father has received a grant that gave him money to take his students on a field trip. Even though they agree that it's hard work to write a grant that you may or may not get, it's very much worth it. The possibility of getting a grant and using it to teach your students in a unique way out weighs not even trying to get one, and having nothing to teach with.

I have talked about me coming up in a BYOD school and this chapter talks about schools like this. I have had issues with kids asking me if they could charge their phones. So I constantly had phones plugged into a wall. Phones went missing, one day there was a fight out on the plaza and an iPod Touch got smashed, the parents of the kid who smashed it had to buy a new one for the other kid, Once I got my middle school kids in line and some one had a school owned nook (the book club had bought about 40 Nooks (probably with a grant) and rented them out to all of the club members). While in line, one of the girl's head phone came out of the headphone jack and the music started playing out loud. I am not sure what the name of the song was, but the chorus had the same word repeated a few times, which was "Ass." I had to take the nook back to the teacher that headed up the book club and tell him what was on school property. There are many problems in this program, however, none of the problems I have mentioned are new problems that schools are facing. Cursing, fighting, interruptions in teaching and learning, these are all things that teachers have dealt with since the beginning of time. In fact, students bringing their own devices helps students to use their own technology while doing school work. Which teaches students that there are more things to do on their phones and tablets than just Candy Crush. My father is now a high school teacher at Clewiston High School in Clewiston, Fl. His students just ended a big project that they could use their phones for. He had a CSI murder senario and his students had to take pictures of a crime scene set up by him. I got to sit in on his class and watch the students excitedly try to figure out "Who killed Mr. Harn?" It was amazing, I had never been this excited in science ever. But it was technology rich and the students had a blast while learning something.

I have had a great time in this class. When I was in middle school and high school, my parents were going to college. While I was in high school they both decided to be teachers. They started to take New Technologies for Education. I asked them what to expect in the class. Keep in mind that they took this class in 2004. They told me Microsoft Office. That was it. Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel. That was it. My point with this story is I can't imagine me going in as a teacher and not using technology. I use technology everyday. And so do most of the people in my generation. However, I am very grateful for this class. I know people in the other class that this school offers that are bored in their class. This class has had so many projects and learning possibilities for me, even though I am pretty tech savvy, I believe I can be more efficient in technology now that I have taken this class.
Resorces: Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.