Posts filed under ‘IDC stuff’
Reading Response Part 3
What are the three most important criticisms Don Tapscott makes of the Times article?
One of the important criticisms Tapscott makes is that the Times article is very one-sided. In my previous post, I said I agreed with the Times article because I was able to relate to it well. However, it is apparent that there is this one-sided view from the Times article. I think the Times article made their point in such a fashion that could mislead readers into thinking that technology is just straightforward, bad.
Another one of the criticisms was that data and evidence is misleading. According to Tapscott, there is no actual proof that this generation is being distracted, and in fact, IQ levels are actually higher.
The third criticism is that people are only negatively affected by technology, in this case, Vishal. Yes, it is true that Vishal probably needs to fix his habits, but I think the fact that Vishal has a passion in film making is a good reason that technology should stay.
Do you agree with Mr Tapscott when he says we need to change “the relationship between student and teacher in the learning process”? Why or why not?
I really do agree with Tapscott on this matter. I think we should establish some sort of technology program in schools so students learn how to use technology in other ways than just Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Youtube, etc.. When teaching technology, it should be engaging, or else students will tend to ignore the boring tech talk. Although implementing technology in school sounds good, making technolgy engaging for everyone is a hard task, as everyone has different preferred ways of learning. Although his idea is “ideal”, it may not be as “realistic”.
Of the two articles, which one demonstrates a greater understanding of technology and your generation? Justify your choice.
Although I agree with the Times article, I believe Tapscott’s response demonstrates a greater understanding of technology and my generation. This is mostly because Tapscott uses actual evidence, rather than subjective evidence that may seem correct to readers. He presents various factors that might affect student’s performances, which is more accurate than just stating that technology is too distracting. Also, Tapscott has more of a “two-sided” view, as he uses both the article that he criticizes, and his own points, to formulate better ideas.
2nd Reading Response- Debates
It Starts With the Individual
I definitely do agree with the author on this matter. I feel like technology has become so convenient for us to use that we have fallen under the habit of mass multitasking. Also, because of so many things being done at once, we cannot concentrate on completing tasks with our fullest attention. Our brain can only function to a certain extent before we start making mistakes, and as we multitask more we begin to exceed that border.
A bit of multitasking is good, but too much affects the quality of our tasks. I agree with this response because I can relate to it very well.
Focus on One Thing
This response is similar to the one before, saying that too much multitasking is causing problems. The author mentions the idea that I also considered, that we start making mistakes when we multitask too much. One way I tend to multitask a lot is alt-tabbing on the computer. I have a feeling that my alt-tabbing speed has increased over time, which indicates that I give less attention to whats on the current page I’m on. Like the previous response, I believe these theories are very reasonable.
Follow up question
I would consider some sort of digital detox because I think I spend too much time on the computer, and I don’t think all my time is spent efficiently on the computer. This is due to the fact that I have a natural habit of multitasking, and just because I am doing everything with speed, does not mean I am doing things with effort. Prior to reading these responses, I haven’t really thought about how multitasking affects my life. I think some change to my daily routines will definitely affect my life positively.
Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction response
I have almost an almost parallel life to Vishal. Even while reading this article, I’ve been distracted a good amount of times. I have a tendency to procrastinate due to the wide variety of options available to me when I am on the computer. I definitely do think my obsession online has negatively impacted my grade. Instead of doing homework, I’d be on Youtube. And over time, it’s really hard to control and time flies before you even realize it.
I did tend to game a lot, and I think it did affect my sleeping patterns. Because of gaming, I would procrastinate, and eventually, there would be a lot of assignments/projects that would start stacking on top of each other. This sometime resulted in nights with little or no sleep at all.
I think technology does balkanize focus because of the options/choices that are given to us. It is quite distracting when we find new things. However, the technology available to us is becoming more and more useful and convenient, so if we are able to control ourselves, the usage of these technologies would be much worth it.
I really do believe schools should be embracing technology. By embracing technology, we can teach students how to use it properly on a regular basis, so their habits change in a positive way. The costs may amount to quite an amount because programs and equipment must be implemented/purchased. Nevertheless, the long term benefits are worth it.
I think the students in the article do represent the good portion of students. I think we can fix this distraction and imbalance of technological use by embracing technology in such a manner that excites students to actually use technology for work.
Placement Update
1) What did you accomplish last week in your placements?
Our group met up with our teacher and talked briefly about when we should meet. We did not get into any specifics yet because Ms. Haveruk is not too sure of what she wants to do with the technology. After a brief discussion, we created a list of questions that we would ask Ms. Haveruk regarding how she wants to teach her class using technology. Our list of questions is quite thorough.
2) What do you need to do this week?
Our group is meeting with Ms. Haveruk this week to ask the questions we have created so we can start brainstorming and implementing ideas to work with the class.
Pursuing Diigo
A specific course that might go well with Diigo is history. I think history requires a lot of online researching, and Diigo is the perfect tool. Diigo allows for fast bookmarking, and the seamless home and school access makes it very convenient for students and teachers. As already mentioned in my previous blog, Diigo is extremely useful for group projects. As a group, students can give ideas, bookmark important articles, highlight important facts in an organized manner for the entire group to view. Diigo is very collaborative, in the sense that everyone in the group knows what everyone is doing. This is unlike the traditional way, where each member does their individual parts, and sends it to their group members.
Using Diigo can also generate less paper usage because teachers can bookmark pages instead of giving students individual sheets.
Since Diigo is an excellent tool for bookmarking, we can merge some other webtools together, like xTimeline or GoogleDocs.
I think if all the students know how to handle the tools provided by Diigo well, they can work much more efficiently. First, I suggest an in-class training of Diigo. This training will introduce Diigo, familiarize students how to use it, and so on. Hopefully, this will take just one class. Then, we can have IDC student/s helping students through the Diigo website by joining the class group. In Diigo, there is a topic section, where people can post anything. Categories can also be made in Diigo, so one category can be used to ask for help on the Diigo site. A sheet would probably be given to the teacher giving some additional information, to limit the questions asked by the students. If this idea does get implemented to many classes, it might be overwhelming to go through all those classes, trying to fix problems.
Enriching Technology Blog Post
Idea: All classes can implement Diigo
Subject Area: All subjects
Details: All students make an account on Diigo, and each class has an individual group. Teachers can tag certain articles and highlight important parts for students to analyze. Students can work on projects and share their own links. The usefulness of Diigo is very diverse, so classes can come up with their own uses of Diigo. For example, if a class wants to do a project, they can separate group members into “groups”, and start pulling articles and collaborating. This way, all the material that is being gathered only relates to their project, not others. Diigo manages groups well, so it is easy for students to go back and forth between groups. If they had a good idea in previous projects, they can always go back to their “group” page and see what they did.
Technology needed: Diigo(with the toolbar), computers with internet access( school and home)
Pros:
-bookmarking tool
-highlighting tool
-good collaborative work ( highlighting and sticky noting websites)
-good organization tool
-can work between home and school seamlessly because all the work that you do (highlight, bookmark,note making) are saved within your account
-an option to organize all other web tools by bookmarking the sites
Cons:
-some classes may not have as many uses for it
-time it takes to teach students may vary due to some students not being too familiar with computers (but this probably applies to all webtools)
-if an article is used by many of the students, and they all put a sticky note, the area can be cluttered (certain rules can be implemented to make a more organized work area)
What needs to happen to make the idea work – Who is responsible
1. Everyone needs to make a diigo account
2. Teacher needs to make the group, then make the diigo account
3. An IDC student can either: go into a class and teach the student, or, moderate the group to answer questions that students have about using Diigo (the initial teaching would probably be an IDC student teaching the basics, and then the IDC student teaching on the “group” made on the site
7th Post- Staples Brainstorm
Our school has done some significant activities to raise environmental awareness.
A big aspect is the SWITCH. Not only has our school improved our own ways of reducing greenhouse gases, but also to other schools because the SWITCH program has been passed down to other schools in the TDSB, too. There is a video of a visit from David Suzuki to the school because of this successful club.
Another environmentally responsible club is the gardening club.
As there are many clubs and activities in the school, we can ask teachers about more environmental accomplishments or ongoing activities
6th Post- Future Shop Brainstorm
As this contest also requires a video, some of the ideas I had from my eInstruction brainstorm can be used here.
As an introduction, we can have an infomercial-type beginning, showing the problems due to lack of or bad technology:slow computers, not enough projectors for classes, waste of paper, inefficient teaching.
Receiving new hardware will also let us use new software; old computers run even low-memory requiring programs slowly.
Our MACs program will greatly benefit from this; as many are interested in computers and sciences.
5th Post- eInstruction Brainstorm
If we choose to make a music video, one of the top 20 itunes songs can be used for the song choice, making it more familiar to the viewers. We can probably change the name of the song to relate to technology.
In our music video, we can shoot the video in a room with no technology, showing how slow and inefficient the class is working.Then, we can introduce another scenario, showing a class full of technology. After both of these scenarios are shown separately, a split screen can be implemented to compare the two. A timer on the bottom of each side can indicate the efficiency of each scenario. At the end, some funny snippets can be added to make the music video more entertaining to watch.
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