Blog Post 3

I after watching Michael Wesch's "A Vision of Students Today", I see that it is a lot like my college experience. The majority of my time is spent either revolving around my schoolwork. Coincidentally,  I also spend the majority of my time using technology, such as my laptop or cell phone. My time invested in sitting in a college classroom does not compare to the amount of time I spend outside of that setting doing work related to school. However, this film seems to address the "traditional" college student, one who is under 20 years old and single. I feel this does not accurately cover many of students today. From my experience, many are over 25 years old and are married or have a family. Time spent caring for the family or working a full time job should be added in to how students spend their day.

I also read Kelly Hines' blog post "It's Not About the Technology."  She is absolutely correct about teachers needing to also be learners. For so many teachers, it seems that once their formal education ends, they do not feel the need to continue their education. Learning new technology and how to implement it in their teaching will greatly benefit the teacher and the students. It's not all about the technology, but in these times, it is greatly beneficial to utilize the technology available to you.
However, she is correct in saying that if a teacher does not know how to use it, it is a waste of money. Technology can also be beneficial as an aid to help students who do not benefit from a traditional lecture type setting. Just because a teacher may have been teaching for years with the same methods, that doesn't mean that their teaching style is the best way. Technology is a wonderful way to include different students with different learning styles.

After reading Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?, I was surprised. I had never given thought to these points he made. While I knew it was beneficial to stay on top of technology, I guess I didn't realize how much of a disadvantage a teacher is put in. His statement saying "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write" is very true. I had just never thought of it in those terms.
But he is absolutely correct. It is amazing how people almost boast about not having useful skills.To stay relevant and useful in your position, you must be willing to continue your education. It seems like people want to continue to make excuses for their lack of knowledge, but I feel what they  need to be doing is attempting to be proactive in their profession and their own learning. Our future is technology. The longer you wait to hop aboard, the harder it will be to catch up.