Releasing the Isolated Warrior

This article starts by describing a memorable scene in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. The hero Indiana Jones is running through a busy marketplace when, suddenly, the crowd parts and a large, burly man wielding a sword appears. Blocking Indy's path, he brandishes his sword with a deftness that fills the viewers with terror for their hero. Indy stops short in frustration as he realizes he must fight the master swordsman. Within seconds, however, he remembers his gun and quickly uses it to take out the warrior. Many in the audience laugh as they understand the irony of the scene. How absurd! How outdated the sword really is when you have a weapon with a wider range.

Similarly, teachers who only have chalk and erasers in their arsenal of teaching tools seem hopelessly outdated to those who have incorporated Internet access into their classroom activities. Although a package of chalk can help you communicate important points to a class, can it help you: keep up with the successful strategies of a colleague 200 miles away?, provide a window through which your students can communicate with other students and experts?, prepare your students for the working world of the 21st century?

Although teachers will tell you that today's students are very different than earlier generations, most do not want to change how they teach. Instead, they want children, parents, and administrators to change. For their part, teachers lament that things are not as they were when they were students.The sad truth is that the "schoolhouse" has not changed in over 100 years. The same tools teachers remember are still used in schools today. New tools arrive, but when teachers do not have the time to learn how to use them, lack ongoing technical support, and lack a long-term plan for integration, they will not embrace these tools as their own.

I agree with the premise of this article that access to the Internet is an answer to today's educational crisis. When teachers are given access, the Internet can penetrate the school walls that isolate them from each other and their students from students around the world. Online access brings ideas, instructional methods, resources, and materials into the classroom. When the Internet becomes as common as the chalkboard in classrooms, then I think America will witness the greatest educational reform since John Dewey introduced the concept of public education. This come with responsibility and commitment from everyone involved so that this connection via technology does not become something of a trendy phenomena, but something of value to further education, especially now when it still fights with it's long out-dated sword.

People Are the Only Thing that Matter

This article describes how the Internet and the World Wide Web are formidable forces in the business and educational environments of today. Developed countries are adopting these technologies at a very rapid pace exposing the K-12 educational environments to them. But ultimately, the premise for real benefits to education will come to assume the following: wired Internet connectivity to the schools and the home; PCs in the schools and in the homes; Internet and PC use literacy for the students and the teachers; and, web-ready curriculum oriented content that works as part of well-established and proven pedagogical methods. With these as just one set of challenges, access is not at hand for those most in need of access to education.

This includes minority groups. According to our Department of Education, in the US only 14% of poor and minority classrooms are wired. Thus, even for developed countries, diminished resources, lack of educators, and safety in the schools are higher priority issues than figuring out how to make the Internet and the Web new vehicles for improved learning.

Based on this article, I see limited Internet access to educational resources as a benefit to education - for some. It can be argued that such efforts advance the field of distance learning and even our understanding of access requirements, even in under-developed nations and eventually making the benefits available to all. But we all know that what is coming out of the short efforts is driven by business opportunities, not universal access. I agree with the statement from the article "In the short term business matters more. But, when people don't matter in the short term, they will not matter at all. People are the only thing that matter."

WildTech Learning

This article details the technology students at Selkirk High School of North Pend Oreille County and a program called the Wilderness Technology Alliance. Among other things, the students are teaching a night class one day a week for the local community. They offer the full gambit of computer instruction, covering everything from hardware, setup, office, webpage design, or any other aspect of computer that any of the students know. The class has been well attended and has proven to be an excellent fundraiser for the Tech Club. Further, there has been such terrific feedback from the adults attending regarding how well the students perform in conducting the course that, regardless of it's huge financial impact for the club, is a terrific school/community event that fosters a better appreciation of the students and their skills.

They also focus on student-to-student teaching as a group of approximately 5 high school Techies will basically teach the junior high class, under the supervision of a teacher.

Selkirk has up to 10 students, primarily freshmen and sophomore, who hope to sit for the A+ Certification examination this spring. The A+ Certification is basically a "computer technician" certification, with which the students could start right out of high school at approximately $35,000 per year.

This model, at least at this High School, revolves around outdoor education as well, rock-climbing, for most; combining outdoor education and preservation with technological advancement. I think that this is great. Not only do the administrators of the school and the district understand that the students in many cases, know much more about technology than the adults, but they let the students be the driving force in utilizing their knowledge to further their own education. The adults have 'gotten out of the way' so-to-speak, and let these students strive to bring technology into the forefront. Along with encouraging students to seek outdoor activities, there seems to be a great balance and respect for both the natural world and the tech world.

Campaign Against American E-Partheid

In this article, it addresses the question: "Have wondered and worried about the life style implications of the information technology explosion on youth, their socioeconomic viability, and the need for radically different educational interventions for their survival?" You're not alone.

Statistics, from Falling Through the Net III, just released by the US Commerce Department and other authoritative reports, powerfully show the accelerating tragedy of poor and ethnic young people in our country, too purposeless, too neglected, too unlettered and too residentially isolated to be part of the cyber careers that bypass society's default warehouses of morgues and prisons.

The "Future Centers" strategy calls for the introduction of IT training exactly where it is most scarce and most needed in neighborhoods and the institutions belonging to the poor and ethnic minorities.Through offering turnkey training in word processing, website design, desktop publishing, spreadsheet accounting, to PC repair with optional advanced certifications and accredited degrees, we have motivated young people to learn to think of themselves professionally at 35 such Future Centers across this nation making a new paradigm of esteem based on what they have learned over what they wear, for a value system conversion.

A good idea to implement general IT knowledge to people, especially children. This will allow for a leg-up when approached with many technology-based problems both in the classroom and in the real world. However, this 'Campaign against American E-Partheid' seems better in theory than implementation. It is grandiose to think that because someone is not particularly versed in many aspects of technology that they will be automatic outcasts of society. I think a much better solution is an integration of technology with support from the community, can help bring everyone accustom to the inevitability of technology as part of our ever growing world.

eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) program

In this article it is described how this program is changing the face of education across the state. The goal of eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) is to support Missouri educators as they integrate multimedia technology into inquiry-based, student-centered, interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching practices that result in improved student performance, increased parent involvement and enriched instructional effectiveness.

Helping teachers learn new teaching strategies using multimedia technologies requires a significant professional development support program. Each teacher in the program receives over 250 hours of professional development over a two-year period. These hours occur mainly after school; districts compensate teachers for their out-of-contract time.

Currently there are 585 eMINTS classrooms in grades 3-12 in rural, suburban and urban settings throughout Missouri. Over 15,000 children and teachers report to eMINTS classrooms every morning. When they reach those classrooms they find a rich array of multimedia learning technologies, including:

Teacher laptop
Interactive whiteboard and projector
Teacher workstation computer
Digital camera and scanner
Printers
One Internet-connected computer for every two students
Software limited to Microsoft Office and Inspiration

This seems like a step in the right direction for the integration of technology in the classroom. The main thing it helps is turning classrooms from teacher-centered to student-centered and where students can help facilitate the lessons. This program has been the center of bringing predominately low-income schools into the technology age, preparing them for the use of such technology. With the support of the state, school district and dedicated professionals, this program has really shown it's strength as beneficial to not only the students, but the classroom environment as well.

Intercultural Education and Virtual Reality

In this article, the idea of having an interconnected 'web' of knowledge is the key to expanding on the already fast growing trend of utilizing technology in the classroom. As the information accessed on the web can actually lead to more questions than answers the 'The Knowledge Web' has been developed. K-Web, demonstrates that all subjects are connected and offers an innovative, accessible, interactive tool for their exploration. The Knowledge Web is not only the product of a community, but it is itself a community building tool. All contributors are potential resources.

Since this web virtual community is in its infancy, it is hard to tell how it might actually work. However, the leading forces behind it are part of PBS's Discovery and have been doing field tests of K-Web. From what I understand, the program would work as a virtual avatar of professionals and experts on subjects. This way, the information that is being gained by the user is the most current, up-to-date, and most importantly accurate. I am not exactly sure if this will take off like wildfire. It sounds like a very complex version of Wikipedia. How does one know things are valid? How would this 'virtual reality' really be a benefit to a classroom in which the reality of things is 'sitting in a classroom'. I guess we will wait and see if 'Avatar' the movie can influence the use of avatars as the motive!

Take Back the Afternoon: Preserving the Landscape of Childhood In Spite of Computers

In this article, the idea of children at a very young age being sought after as consumers of technology was looked at with a disapproving eye. At the forefront of the argument is essentially this: Does the computer really make your preschooler (or any aged student) smarter, happier and healthier? Or does it numb her brain and make her just another contributor to the globalization of a consumer-oriented, ecologically destructive culture? Parents, even with students in the youngest of grades are constantly wondering, "Where are the computers?" "Is this school going to be getting computers?" Though most do not know why this is of utmost importance, they just see the 'vehicle' of computers as something that will ensure their child is not left behind.

The idea of computers, at least what they represent for most, is in complete contrast to childhood imaginative play. With a computer, you choose predetermined, prefabricated, and and usually predestined things-- pictures, fonts, websites, even learning games have a certain input and output that does not allow imagination. Like television, computers encourage our children to become couch potatoes. The sophisticated processes of critical thinking, problem-solving and kinesthetic coordination appropriately mature out of children's interaction with concrete materials, caring adults and thoughtfully managed groups of peers. Luring children into the world of pure information and electronic images alienates them from experience and disembodies their learning. But in concert with active learning, computers can enhance the educational experience. In all things, moderation.

Instant Messaging: Friend of Foe of Student Writing?

This article looked at the increasing problem of 'text' or 'IM' speak ever creeping into the classroom. Writing a paper with proper English and correct spelling and grammar has always been a challenge and one we as teachers strive to teach. However, with technology of cell phones and IM chats on computers more readily available to students, it is easy to see how the usage of these shortened words and phrases can now replace proper English. When the students are not in regular practice of writing and thinking in a certain way, it can only be expected that they do what is natural and easy... IM speak!

Within this article it is mentioned that students do not know the difference between formal and informal writing. I absolutely agree. I have seen and even had a conversation with a student in which the words are shorted, abbreviated, and the proper use is altogether lost. When there are kids out there that think U is really how one spells YOU, then we have a problem. I will leave you with this from the article that sums up how relaxed students have become with writing and speech, not aware of the blatant informality of it due to the increase of technology in their lives:

Carl Sharp's 15-year old son's summer job application read "i want 2 b a counselor because i love 2 work with kids"