1. Smart boards--hear so many good things...how can I convince my administrators to find the money to get some???
2. ebooks? How will they affect the future of school libraries? Will kids eventually lose the joy of holding an actual book?
3. ipads vs. textbooks? really cost beneficial? Can they be updated/replaced with ever-changing technology?
4. Penpals across the country/continents...anyone have an easy site to set that up?
5. Always evolving technology....how are we going to afford it???
6. Handwriting? worth taking the time to teach anymore?
7. Spelling? with texting, IMing and spellcheck how long until this is nearly obsolete and a complete new language is born to go along with LOL, BTW, and ROFL?
8. Plagiarism---does technology make it too easy?
9. Safety for kids? How do we really teach and instill good citizenship rules in regards to technology? Hard to work on cause-effect when you can't "see" who/what you are hurting.
10. Are teachers eventually going to be totally replaceable? Do I need to be looking for an alternative occupation for later in my lifetime??
#9 - you gave me food for thought - I had never considered how the distance of the digital world would affect the tendency to bully. I realize that being anonymous makes it easier to hurt someone; but I had not thought about the aspect of not seeing your victim react and those ramifications.
ReplyDeleteThere is a great article in last month's SCOPE magazine by Scholastic (7th and 8th grade ELA magazine). The article was titled "Is Facebook Making You Mean?" It brought up a lot of those issues of anonymity, and tone, which obviously is hard to read through text. While I DO believe that students can be taught how to use these things appropriately, sometimes we all (I'm definitely guilty) write things so impulsively without reading over before publication...in conversation one can immediately rectify the error, in written words it is there forever.
ReplyDelete#6 I am a Language Arts teacher and handwriting is huge in my world. I hope we never stop working on it!
ReplyDeleteSafety and bullying is a big issue. Also knowing that what you post is out there forever. Even if you think you delete it, it can be found. We had a student bash a teacher on Facebook saying that they hated the teacher and the teacher saw it! Now that student didn't get in trouble but other students started giving her a hard time about it. So beware that what you post is there for people to say. Don't say it unless you want someone to hear it.
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