The Tech Commandments

Have you ever wondered why we keep technology out of the classroom?  Well the Tech Commandments article tells you exactly why.  The fear that children will act the same way online as they do in the classroom, the fear that the student will known more then the teacher, the problem of not having technology educated teachers.  These are some of the many reasons why teachers want to keep technology out of the classroom, however, what if we had teachers that knew how to work the technology, they knew how to teach the students to act on the internet then wouldn't it be alright if we had technology into the classroom?


We need to understand that in order to use technology our teacher need to be taught how to use it first, and there needs to be a set up.  For instance you don't want a teacher to start the lesson, tell the students to turn on computers and load a program that takes twenty minutes.  Have the computers and the programs on and running, and shut the monitor off so they cannot see what is on there.  Its is little things like these that can help improve our classrooms and our future students.

Blame Our Young? Or Use their Passion!

This article by Marc Prensky brings a new perspective to the educational system.  In the U.S. adults complain that our students are not taking their education seriously.  “What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country,” said Obama in a recent address to students.  But they rarely think of the fact that, they just do not have a reason to care about certain topics.  As educators we are not showing them the relevance, and the need for the knowledge.  We want our children to enjoy what they do, so how come we do not allow them to do that in school?  If students can find something they are passionate about, do you think they would continue to fail?  No, they will want to learn, it will become something that is more than a lecture to them.   We need to include our student’s passions into the classroom, and this is easily done by making lessons applicable to real life. 

Assistive Technology and Disabilities

Carol Pecks article, “High-tech devices help kids with disabilities,” tells a story about how new technology can be individualized to help students succeed.  Though assistive technologies are not only limited to students, they can help all people communicate and function better.  Having this in the classroom is excellent for students to learn the proper way to use these technologies, and can help other students learn how to help assist others.  Assistive technologies are helping students, however are we helping them?  Many of these systems are expensive and families probably cannot afford them.  Some of the programs are becoming cheaper because they are receiving  completion, but are they just as good?  Will they be able to assist these people enough?  I think these are some of the things we need to consider, and we need to find a way to lower the prices to make these more readily available for all people that need assistive technology.