Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?
By: Scott McLeod

In Dr. McLeod blog post, he lists all the stuff teachers or parents shouldn’t teach. He makes valid points why not to teach these things, but his post isn’t necessarily telling you not to teach them. At the end of his post he makes the comment how if you a teacher who doesn’t teach their students all the different technologies, then you will be setting your students decades behind all others. In my comment that I left to Dr McLeod, I shared how I think technology is rapidly growing and students need to know how to use it, so that they can have an understanding for it in the future. Yes like many others things out there, technology has it dangers, but that can be prevented and parents need to know how to do this. Parents shouldn't look at technology as the enemy and the reason why their child isn't doing well. Students need to be familiar with the different technologies and parents need to let them embrace technology, so it can help them in the future.

After doing some research on Dr. McLeod, I found out he is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He founded CASTLE, which stands for the Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education. It is the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. McLeod is also co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). Also, he is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues.


The iSchool Initiative
By: Travis Allen

In the video “The iSchool Initiative”, 17 year old high school senior Travis Allen discusses his solution to America’s education problem. His goes on to state how his high school is having massive budget cuts, how teachers are being let go, and class sizes are growing larger. Travis then goes on to show a PowerPoint that he hopes will answer the question, “Does technology belong in our classroom”. His PowerPoint begins with his idea for Americas future in education, “The iSchool.” The “iSchool” will be built on Apple’s popular iTouch platform. He goes on to explain how “iSchool” will save money. He shows many different applications on the iTouch that are classroom ready. He ends his PowerPoint by stating how with the “iSchool Initiative”, corporations, business leaders, and apple tech programmers can come together to revolutionize the education system.

I really enjoyed all the different applications that Travis showed during his PowerPoint. His whole presentation was well put together and he did a good job showing how his solution can save money. I like his idea to a certain extent. I do think that his solution can save money and help teachers communicate better with students and parents. I don’t seeing his idea happening anytime soon, but could see it happening in the future.


Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
By: Eric Whitacre

When Eric Whitacre’s video started, I thought that it looked really cool that a group of people can get together and perform an awesome rendition of “Lux Aurumque.” Then I read how none of the people have met and/or knew each other. That makes the video that more amazing to me. For a group of strangers to come together to sing that amazing is really unique to see. Eric’s video also shows how far technology has come. For something so grand to be made over the internet is pretty cool.

Teaching in the 21st Century
By: Kevin Roberts

In Kevin Roberts video “Teaching in the 21st Century”, Kevin explains what he thinks it means to teach. He goes on to show how we need to encourage kids to be creative and support them in their future. Forcing information on them and expecting them is to remember is not the key. He wants student to want to engage in education and for them to have hands on experiences throughout their learning process. I agree with him and think that educators need to support them and encourage them every step of the way. As a future educator I want my students understand what they are learning and have fun.