Articles

In Adopt and Adapt the thing that struck me close to home was where the author talked about how teachers resist change. The reason why it stuck out to me was because I was so irked about our inability to do our Flickr project and me feeling technologically stupid. (I found out later that the router was down and we had a wireless outing, and that was one of our many problems that day.) I said, I'd rather do this in Movie Maker because I know it'll work. BUT! Flickr was very different with different things you can do, like put where you want the pop ups to go on a picture. It's a very useful and valid tool but I wasn't comfortable enough with it to not stress out because of time constraints. (Let's face it, I freak out sometimes.) My stress, along with this article reminded me that what is important is not always easy.

In Synching Up With the IKid, I think this article points to our adaptability as a human race (and thus the reason we evolve). I think children who grow up immersed in technology should think and learn differently than us because they have new tools that allow them to do so. I only hope I can keep up as a teacher.

I also really liked what Papert said about kids learning more if they construct their own learning environment. I think we can do things in a classroom to deal with this: forming relationships, adding choice to our lessons, etc. But with the possibilities technology could accomodate, I think we could push this idea even further. I don't feel smart enough technologically to predict in what ways, but I'm excited about the implications of this article.