US to Saudi- Technology is global

Recently, I attended the U.S Saudi business conference in Los Angeles. One of the key note speakers was Jay Bhatt, CEO of Blackboard. An inspiring orator, he discussed how education is a reflection of the workplace. However, the current education system is not reflecting the changes in the global community:  "The world is changing and while there is a push for education reform there is not a change of global mindset.



One of speakers in the educational panel highlighted the need for progressive and evolving education,  "It(the global market) is dynamic. It is not static. Then why are educators so static?"

Video and other videos from the conference can be found on vimeo HERE.

Meta Reflection

Technology is changing education and how we interact in the classroom and globally. The classroom of today is drastically different than the classroom I grew up with. People often hesitate with change, this means learning something new or having to relearn something that you may have been doing the same way for years.

I find the best way to approach technology in education is with an open and critical mind. There are thousands of tools and apps that can be used, but should they? What can they offer?

For example, one day after class we discussed smartboard. Smartboard can be beneficial if used appropriately but their are other tools like the IPEVO that may be more appropriate for different classroom settings.

My posts on this blog reflect what I am interested in, or snapshots of interesting topics related to technology in education. They do not reflect in-depth reflections, and I would probably use a different forum than a blog to go into very in-depth analysis of different tools. I have also included an education in technology twitter, that is slowly gaining followers and anything that I post or repost will be forwarded this blog in the future. I plan to keep up this blog, it will probably shift from technology in education to technology, education, and ESL, but I would like to keep it as an open space to share and collect interesting information.

Even after this course, I still have questions about how to use technology most effectively in the classroom. Technology is not going to take the place of the teacher, but it can amplify the lesson. It can also make the work of organization easier and thus allow the teacher to spend more time on the lesson than on student papers.

No matter what, technology needs training. I consider myself tech savvy and even I learned new things about googlesites that I did not know from Rebecca. Right now we are working on our flat classrooms assignment, and we are using diigo(a website that one our classmates reviewed), voicethread, and skype in our project description. Technology can be used effectively, but since it is so novel to many few take the initiative.

In addition to ESL I am also interested in higher-ed. Bonk's presentation has made me think about where is education going in the future. While younger grades are more regulated, higher education has been changing drastically with open source material. This makes me think about my current situation now and what it will be like in the future. Both Bonk and the Flat Classroom project have brought global into the classroom, and also pushed educators minds to think globally.

The question that it leaves me with is : how to prove effectiveness? Technology is very expensive and those who fund it want numbers and quantitative data. I think over time, and if technology is being used effectively than quantitative data will be easier to collect and thus more funding for technology will be possible.

RSS feeds

I used RSSinclude for my blog. At first I selected googles, but it will be expiring soon and I needed a new type of aggregator. Many of the RSS apps or different types are separate websites or a separate app you must log in that will have all your RSS organized. I am the type of person who likes everything in one place, and aesthetically organized. RSSinclude allowed me to create a RSS aggregator that would pull articles to my blog in an organized widget. The widget can be personalized by size and can be even made to large dimensions, really whatever you want.

The downside, is that it expires after 30 days.








There are other great RSS feeds out there, but if I wouls select RSS feeds if you would like to have something you can use as well as share with other educators, parents or students. Also, you can have it sent to your twitter, really the possibilities are endless with RSSinclude as long as you pay.

My RSS feed before expiration 

The current use of Tech in ED

We have been discussing the amazing benefits of technology in education, and have been researching and looking at how this can be used effectively.

However, I found this interesting article that looks at how technology is being used today in the classroom and how it is greatly underutilized.

It found that most school teachers are reluctant to use the new technology and that students will use the technology mostly for basic skills. Programs and apps are not being used to their full potential. Thus, it will be hard to get more funding next year for technology if the current technology is not being used.

What I found most interesting is that they found children of lower income families were using the technology for more drill activities compared to those children of higher socio-eco background. It raises questions and makes me think that maybe teachers in lower socio-eco school districts are not getting technology training that can help them assist the children. The article did not look at the huge WHY questions, but it is very informative about the current status of Tech in Edu.

Inkflow

Today I will be presenting the app Inkflow , by qrayon,  and how one can use it in education. There are many doodling apps out there but inkflow has this amazing selection tool that allows u to resize, move, insert pictures, that other apps don't have .this app would be great for students when creating mind maps or just to get the creative juices flowing!

Three Ring

I really enjoyed the presentation on the ThreeRing app for teachers to use in the classroom. I especially like the ability to take pics of the student's work to upload it to the Three Ring system. I have terrible handwriting, and love this system for organizational reasons. Oh, and it is FREE!!


I haven't played around with it yet, but hope to play with it before I start my internship in August.

Semicolon

Recently the Lonely Islands( if you don't know who they are you are just google some of their sketches) created a sketch about "semicolons". Watch here.

It is important to stay relevant and to not just bring technology in the classroom but make it interesting to the students. When I was creating my IWB lesson, there were a lot of lessons that used technology but few that were both interesting and relevant.

The Lonely Islands are comical and use popular cultural references that make their rap about semi colons amusing. The clip itself is not appropriate for younger audiences, and not very informative about proper grammatical use of the semicolon. However, I can see it being used in a college setting to create student interest in the subject.