Reading Response 1

Technology Past, Present and Future

Past:
In my K-12 education, I used technology pretty extensively. In 3rd grade we played the Oregon Trail game on old (old, old) computers. Moving into middle school, I began using the internet to do research for projects as well as word processing papers. In High school, I made a number of Power Point presentations.

Present:
Currently, I'm hoping for a smart board in the classroom. At the same time, in the elementary setting, there seems to be less use for such a lecture-centric tool as that. I could replace a journal element with a blog element. Additionally, youtube could be a good tool for combination education/learning. Example.

Future:
A big concern of mine, relating to technology and coming from a medium-to-high tech background, is that the in-class tech will be out of date or non-existent. I don't feel like each and every student would need to have a high-end gaming machine at home, but if I can't even have enough school computers so that my class can all do their research/word process, I'd be very sad. Print Page in IE

Avatars in Education

Avatars can be used to help in education by giving students an interesting character to focus on. Additionally, you could use an Avatar to act as a different character that you still have total control over, kind of like the childrens book Miss Nelson is Missing. Print Page in IE