"Digital Divide"

What is the digital divide?

• The gap between people or communities that have technology and those who don't have technology.

How to close this gap?

• Many organizations and pair-up companies such as the Gates, or the American Library Association, are trying to spread technology to other areas of the world that doesn't have technology.  They believe that everyone should have technology available to them.  Many people believe that if someone has technology they can do anything.http://courses.unt.edu/kappelman/aboutwork/articles/Divides&Conflicts.HTM

How does the digital divide show up in the classroom?

• Many public school districts have students that don't own their own computer at home so it is very difficult to have assignments online.  Many don't have any technology available to them outside of class and some schools don't have a wide spread of resources for use.  It would make assignments online very difficult when there are maybe three computers and 20 students. 

How to address this in the classroom?

• If there are reacources at the school made available to the students have them work on this assignment in class and make time for them to finish or come back to finish during school time.  If you don't have resources such as computers, but the students have cell phones you could possibly have them work on the assignment through that type of technology.  They could also pair up to share computers to lessen the demand of technology.   

#ntchat : New Teachers on Twitter

This conversation is on twitter on Wednesday nights at 7/6 C. They have topics that start out and it is thousands of people jsut giving adv ice and people asking questions.  I learned alot of different ideas and techniques I can use when I become an educator.  The main topic this week was Tough kids in a classroom.  I learned hwo to handle them and how to approach this type of teaching and learning style.  It was sometime hard to keep an actul conversation going with just one person it kind of jumps around alot but it was very interesting what different people's opinions were on the subjects.

Apps for education

There are thousands of apps for education. I found some that were specifically for young children and then some for high school or college aged students. The ones for young children were more based on story telling or spelling games, and memory.  The one that cuaght my eye was a shakespeare pro.  It has all of shakespeare works, his poems, plays and sonnets. In a high school english class or a more specific college class they would be able to easily get information on this subject through this app.  If they have a phone or a ipad they would have easy acess to this and recieve the information. I will post a link to this site that has information of this app.

Google Docs and How it is used in the classroom

While I was researching this tecnology and different ways it can be used in the classroom, I found a site that google docs represents.  It is a collaboration of different ideas and ways teachers have used this form of technology in their classroom.  They have used it in a way that students and share their ideas and research in one document.  They also can use this has a group communication tool for students and teachers alike.
There are always negative aspects to a technology, one that I could find to become a problem, when definitely working with young kids is that when working with a document that they are all suppose to share they could erase each others works.  They would be easily distracted with this technology as they would be with any technology.   That seems to be a problem with all technology, becuase technolgy is very shinny and pretty so it easily distracts kids. 

Pros and Cons of technology in the classroom

The article that I am attaching to this post is very interesting on how different school districts approach problems in the classroom.  Each situation is different, but they all came up with the same conclusions.  All data showed that teachers with the proper training on technology had students that showed postitve changes in their learning abilities.  They found that if a teacher had general training their students were less likely to succeed in this type of learning situation.  Many schools have done research and surveys to see how teachers are using technology and to see if it is worth spending the funds to make technology available for the students and the teachers.  The article is titled Technology and Acedemic Achievement by Les Foltos.

Google Earth

I have been researching google earth and how teachers are using google earth in the classroom.  I think it is very interesting how teachers are showing children places that they are hearing about in the news.  They are also teaching them about geography and different land masses and disasters that are going on around the world. 

myself and education 109

In education 109 we are learning about twitter and blogging.  I am not familiar with this type of technology and the way Professor Kruse is teaching us.  It is very interesting to learn about what I have always thought was social sites and he is using them has an education tool.
http://educatech.wordpress.com/courses/educ-109-educational-technology/