Khan Academy and the Future of Education

I was very excited to watch Salman Khan's TED talk because I used the KhanAcademy to study for my CSET. While studying for the test I kept thinking to myself how wonderful this site was and if only I had it available to me while I was in school. Though I used it for myself I never really thought about incorporating the site into the classroom until now. This idea of flip teaching and using videos to educate students is a new concept that I had never thought to explore. I am actually very drawn to the idea because it allows students to use various resources to strengthen their comprehension of academic content. I feel that incorporating these tools can only help students to achieve academic success. Having education move towards the route of using academic sites such as the Khan Academy may seem very scary for some educators because they may feel as though technology will interfere with the ways in which they teach. I on the other hand disagree because I feel video, flip teaching, and the Khan Academy are academic tools that should be incorporated in the classroom. Teachers should not think that the Khan Academy will take their place but rather help facilitate a lesson or reiterate any information that a student may have missed. In recent years, education has been moving towards an online education which has contributed to the fears that technology may take educators jobs. It is now possible to earn your bachelors, masters, or even a Ph.D online! I see why many educators are hesitant to use technology in the classroom but I feel that it is necessary. Students need to be exposed to different methods of teaching in order to best determine their learning style. I often times need to hear information more than once for concepts to stick. With flip teaching this is now possible. As opposed to having students reread a chapter in their textbook they can watch a video or even review a lecture from class. I am excited to incorporate technology into my own classroom. I feel that education is moving and will continue to move towards implementing various technologies into the classroom. With that being said, we as educators need to become familiar with these programs. Districts should provide education classes for teachers in order for them to be able to transition into this new form of pedagogy. We also need to address the issue of accessibility. In the TED talk Salman was working with a school in Los Altos  which is an affluent area. How can we as educators make these tools accessible to students living in poverty?

Word Clouds & Powtoon

I really appreciated being introduced to these websites. Creating a word cloud was fun and I would like to use it as a lesson by having students use adjectives to discuss a character in a story. This will not only increase students vocabulary but also help with reading comprehension. As for Powtoon I thought it was a great tool to create fun powerpoint presentations for teachers and students. With that being said, I did however experience technical difficulties using the site. My presentation crashed three times and I became very frustrated with the entire project. I was able to post a link on my blog, but when I click on it the site crashes. If I could get any advice to avoid this that would be great! I was using the computers at NHU.

Powtoon

http://www.powtoon.com/presentoons/f6yQUTvzegn/edit/

Word_Cloud

Lip Dub Video- Fair Use?

I feel that the Lip Dub video is not covered under Fair Use laws because the class did not give credit to Hall and Oats for their song that was played throughout the video. Also, many corporations were displayed such as Pepsi and Gatorade that were not cited. In addition, posters were shown yet the images were not distorted and the photographers had no mention in the credits.

Fair Use- Blog Prompt

The four factors that comprise measuring fair use consists of: the purpose of your character of use, the nature of copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of portion taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market. It allows the students to use copyrighted work at a certain extent. Students may use information or ideas of authors to educate themselves but must site the source whenever they use information that is not their own. After reading this I found that using and presenting information from the web is acceptable but copyright issues tend to arise when another person profits off of the original owners work. Though students may not be profiting off of the intellectual property of an individual it is important to teach students how to properly cite sources and teach students about academic integrity. Students need to understand the consequences of plagiarism but more importantly the teacher needs to familiarize him/herself with the rules and regulations in order to educate students. Based on the article I feel my future students and I can use the web to communicate information or ideas but we must give the author recognition for the work that they have done.

Digital Native VS Digital Immigrant

   Based on Prensky's article I could not agree more with the concept of digital natives and digital immigrants. Growing up my family was fortunate enough to always have a computer and television in the home. We have grown up using technology and always looked to the web for answers rather than a textbook. Comparing my knowledge of using the web in comparison to my parents I believe that I am a digital native in comparison to my parents who would be classified as digital immigrants. I often hear my parents ask if someone received an email or have trouble navigating through the web. Just the other day I had showed my mother how to share contacts on the iphone and she was blown away. Mind you she has had her phone for two years now!

After reading Hertz's article I understand her dismay with the terms digital immigrants and digital native. As I mentioned above I was fortunate to always have a computer in my home where as many students are not. I believe that labeling people into two groups is not the best approach but I feel that Prensky was trying to explain that we as educators need to catch up to the digital age. Further segregating our students based on particular labels is not the correct way to go about the situation. As opposed to calling our students digital natives, digital immigrants, or digital citizens which all carry negative connotations because they are all binaries I feel that the real issue at hand is to educate ALL students on how to properly use technology. Whether a student uses technology everyday or has never used a computer we need to teach them the proper skills that will contribute to their lifelong success and ability to function in society.

I think as a  future classroom teacher I may have a slight advantage because I was born in the age of technology and understand what an important role technology plays in our everyday lives. In five to ten years the advancement of technology may even surpass my experience. With that being said, we as educators need to continue to educate ourselves when it comes to learning about and using technology. How can we as educators expect out students to learn about new information if we refuse to learn how to use and understand technology? I feel that in order to connect with our students we must incorporate tools that students use in their everyday lives.