Blog Post #10

Well on Moragan Bayda's blog I read her story and watched the video Dan Brown made. I can see from a teacher's perspective, like Ms. Bayda, why she would want to share this video with others. It is bluntly a fact that the methods of teaching have not changed any where near the pace that technology has advanced. Dan Brown keeps talking about the way that education is institutionalized and he is very accurate with that description in my personal opinion and experience. The primary effort and financial resources should be used in the secondary and higher education levels.

The economy is a major factor in the lack of resources that are available to students especially in the public school system. It would be nice to only focus on the advancement of that technology would give our children. Unfortunately the reality is that while we are learning about all the unlimited advantages that our children could have with the numerous websites, computer programs, and gadgets it is not reality that they will have access to them. I 100% agree Dan Brown that the methods used to teach to children need to be revised. The attention and focus of children today is not what it used to be years ago. Technology is a factor in that. They are used to having interactive video games, social networking and immediate answers. We can’t really expect them to be attentive for a long time without being distracted. College students, whom are considered to be adults, can not even seem to sit in lecture classes without falling asleep, texting or web searching on their lap tops. How can we possibly think that children can keep their focus?

One of the most resourceful and genius things that I have read about a teaching doing that would actually use technology to the best advantage for the children was from Jeff Utecht. His blog is title is “The thinking stick.” He tells about a teacher named Brian Bennett. You can read about him on my blog post CAT #3. Mr. Bennett used technology to put his lesson plan in technology format. Therefore, when he taught he wasn’t spending time flipping through a book, looking for his next material, or having to return to a desk to get the next information. This was genius. He used his time out of class to prepare and teach the lesson so that in class he was available to student’s answer questions rather spend time searching for papers, erasers or etc.

While the grand idea that Dan Brown has is true it is not practical and we have to be realistic in what we have to work with. The dream of being able to teach with Ipads, web cameras and so forth is just that a dream. We can all aspire to have those abilities one day. In the mean time we need to focus on what things we do have and how to make those things more modern and interesting to the children.




So, there is this person named Tom Johnson who does not think that children should take pencils home. Most anyone reading this is probably thinking what in the heck could be his reason and that it possibly can not make sense. I thought so from the initial sentence and I still think so after reading the entire blog post. He goes on to say that they are some kind of negative effect on standardized test the children take and that they are dangerous. It is true they can be dangerous if the children are allowed to use them as weapons and go around stabbing other children. Yes this has been known to have happened before however far from the normal reason children have pencils at home.

In the grand scheme of school a pencil is one of the most used and requested items that a teacher asks a student to bring to class. If they are used to having it all at school perhaps taking it home might just encourage them to use it there as well. I would much rather my children have the supply to write or draw regardless of where they are. This will only allow them to learn, create and/or explore.