Blog Post #3

Peer Editing
 I chose to comment on my peers blog. I don't feel that i had an adequate blog to comment on as the author made it very clear that she did not care to do the assignment. I simply hope that she reads my response and might possibly take to heart that school and class, no matter what it may be, is of the utmost importance.

Technology in Special Education by Stephanie Tyler
     This assignment is based on being to able to describe how technology can help our teaching. I completely agree with the notion that that technology can ABSOLUTELY help our students in their understanding, retention, and growth of knowledge. I do in this blog, however, want to hit on two points. One, how technology can help our students, and two, how as we have done in the past with critiquing; this blog aims to show one side of a story that has too many facets to address in a simple six minute video.
    First off, I am an adamant believer that technology not only will help our students, but it is also the only way too truly keep them current with their futures in society. The work it has done, for not only special needs, but every single student out there is unquestionable. Of course special needs children needs more help, it's in the name, but technology has made crossing certain barriers easier than ever before. We are able to reach children on their level like we haven't been able to do in the history of time by speaking to them on their chosen form of communication. This cannot be discounted at all. Technology has more implications for the future of teaching than any other form of communication out there, and must be respected in its entirety.
    Secondly, I feel that this did not discus fairly and impartially the shortcomings of technology in helping special needs children. I am completely sympathetic to the plight of these children, but Ms. Tyler simply spewed her one sided propaganda, and it sort of turned me off. Her side to all this seemed to come off as technology simply can fix these children's problems, and that with the right amount of technology we can feel free to discount whatever their problems may be. I feel that she fed a lot of these children the answers she was looking to receive and that in itself, seems horribly wrong to me. Don't get me wrong, what she is doing is an extremely admirable thing, but to deliberately show such a lop sided view just turned me off on her message, which is a true shame.
 The implication oaf the "iPad apps" have absolutely no boundaries in teaching. The season being that apps distributed have no limits other than that of the creators. The apps shown in this blog are incredible for the learning acumen of these children, and the app creators should be commended by more than just the money they receive from selling their apps. But to my original point, the applications of "apps" in teaching have zero boundaries, as technological innovation has zero boundaries. So until someone is able to definitavly reign in the ingenuity of human beings. We have no where to look but up, for mankind and education as whole.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count
     This counter and the accompanying data is definitely an eye opener and shows the enormity that social media has on today's society. The fact that these extraordinary numbers of social media inputs are being done at once on different platforms is just a glance at the unmistakeable fact: social media is not only here to stay, but will most likely grow in importance in the future.
     As far as how this phenomenon affects the careers of both current and prospective teachers, I would have to say that anyone wanting to stay relevant in the world is going to have to hop on the social media bandwagon or be left behind. Staying current with changes of this magnitude is imperative for any teacher who has a desire to prepare their students for anything outside of the classroom. How on earth would a teacher be able to say that they have prepared a student to get out into the real world without at least somewhat exposing them to social media, which has, is, and will be changing society in ways we have never seen before. Odds are that teachers will also begin having to use these means of communication in the near future to even conduct the day to day teaching. Social media is here to stay and the numbers don't lie, so I think its imperative that we stay current, if not at least attempt to actually lead the way.

A Vision of Students Today
   Michael Wesch did a wonderful job creating such an intresting and entertaining video about some of the problems in higher education that students seem to face. The students reiterated some of the same themes from previous assignments such as, working in careers that don't exist today and how students are actually using social media like Facebook during class instead of learning. The students also seemed very disenchanted with the whole structure and reasoning behind education and did not seem to grasp why they were there at all really.
     I think that students are not seeing the importance of what they are doing in higher education as much as they used to for a couple of reasons. First, students see this as just some right of passage as can be seen by how many students played through class rather listen and learn. They are respecting what an opportunity they have, because they feel they are not really going to have much of a leg up on the competition by the time they get out anyway. Another reason I think the students in the video are so unhappy is that the cost of school in many ways is not worth what some students will get out of it in a financial sense. As the girl who stated that she will be $20,000 in debt when she graduates, she may or may not be able to pay off for many years, depending on what field she enters into.
      The modern student seems to have more worries than they used to. It used to be that a student could get a higher education and be guaranteed a better life than someone who did not have that education at all. Now, there are way more distractions and absolutely no guarantees in life then in the past. In closing, I think that we as teachers have to work harder than ever to keep our students inspired and focused on the task at hand, not just in school but at success in life.