This article was about a conversation between two people. Russ said what he had to say and the response of Scott (author of this blog). For me, this was one of the harder C4T I had to comment on. And between you and me, I am not sure if I really understood the underlying message. But regardless if the message I received was what the author intended, here is my take on the matter:
Both persons, Russ and Scott, feel the need that "tech advocates" should focus on selling the learning, and not just the technologies. Russ feels that we shouldn't push for technological tools in the educational setting (or at least that is what I understood his approach to the matter to mean) but solely on the learning. Scott comes across as seeing that the technologies can pull change in the practice of learning.
My Response:
Hi Scott! I am a student at the
You can visit our class blog at edm310.blogspot.com
What do I think? Hmm. I think that too many teachers and administrators are opposed to the Ed Tech perspective. I am young, just recently (almost 3 years ago) finished going through my local school system (Mobile County Public Schools System) and although a lot of these technologies are newer, I had never heard of blogging. I never would have thought that I could have diverse conversations with students in other countries. It is a shame that teachers don’t use the technology as learning tools. It wasn’t until I took this course before I really saw the potential of the tools. I really feel that teachers should focus on the learning aspect of education versus the tools in which they can use. However with that being said, we have to stimulate the minds of the students and present the information in a manner in which they feel comfortable learning. Let’s face it. A child would rather play a video game than read a book, or they would rather interact with other people than write an assignment alone. If the fact is we, as humans, need social interaction to thrive, and our senses are stimulated by visualizations on a screen, then why not teach behind a screen, or with assistance of a screen. Is it harmful to offer new ways of learning? No. Would we not do more harm by ignoring the way students learn?
Scott posed 3 questions.
A) What will it take to move schools away from their unidirectional postal service mailings, paper newsletters, Friday folders, parent portal updates, e-mail listservs, and/or grainy public television channels and toward something that’s more multidirectional and interactive?
B) Why do parents - even digitally-savvy ones - fail to put much pressure on their local schools to use these powerful communication tools?
C) Are there schools or districts that you feel are doing a good job right now of using social media tools (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube) to interact with their relevant audiences (and, if so, do you have any links)?
My Response:
It is Lisa Ferro again, from the University of South Alabama. (I’m in the EDM 310 class.)
A) What will it take to move schools away from their unidirectional postal service mailings, paper newsletters, Friday folders, parent portal updates, e-mail listservs, and/or grainy public television channels and toward something that’s more multidirectional and interactive?
B) Why do parents - even digitally-savvy ones - fail to put much pressure on their local schools to use these powerful communication tools?
C) Are there schools or districts that you feel are doing a good job right now of using social media tools (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube) to interact with their relevant audiences (and, if so, do you have any links)?
My Response:
It is Lisa Ferro again, from the University of South Alabama. (I’m in the EDM 310 class.)
Well, I guess that is a good answer to your last question, “Are there any schools that are using these tools?” I’m not sure how much of the university I attend uses blogs; however, in EDM 310, my teacher Dr. Strange, has solely relied on the blogging tool for all assignments. We are to visit teachers, classmates, and kids’ blogs, world wide, and comment on them. Not only that, we have to blog ourselves, on our personal blogs. (I must say, this has been my favorite course I have taken at USA.) Our class blog’s link is edm310.blogspot.com
On the class blog, there are a lot of links, one that will lead you to links of his students’ blogs.
On the class blog, there are a lot of links, one that will lead you to links of his students’ blogs.
My instructor, Dr. Strange, has a blog:
strangethoughtsbyjohn.blogspot.com
strangethoughtsbyjohn.blogspot.com
Well, since I have started with the last question, I might as well just work backwards…
As for your second question, B, the digital savvy parents, and those that aren’t, fail to put pressure on the local school because, maybe, the funding of the school is inadequate for such implementation of tools. Maybe these parents are so comfortable with the more traditional communication than the more productive way.
I, personally, hate to wait for responses. It is much easier/convenient for all parties involved to know the ifs-ands-& buts about what is going on.
I, personally, hate to wait for responses. It is much easier/convenient for all parties involved to know the ifs-ands-& buts about what is going on.
Last but not least, question A: I think the transition lies solely on the communities. Change must take place where change is wanted. With the way the world is moving, technologically wise, the communities will eventually push for the transition, but I am afraid it will not happen, naturally, soon enough. So maybe I change my answer, it starts with us. Let us push for the transition!
I enjoyed reading your posts! Thank you so very much for sharing!
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