Pumpkin Painting at the UC

Hey guys just incase you haven't seen the flyers on campus, Sigma Tau Delta is hosting a Pumpkin Painting from 10:30am - 2:30pm this Friday the 29th at the UC.  Pumpkin an paints are $3, so come be creative and paint a pumpkin to celebrate Halloween. Hav a great week hope to see you all there!

Technology Articles Reflection

I learned that technology is over all a helpful tool in teaching. The second article, Digital Native, Digital I migrants, was the most appealing to me.  I liked how Marc Prensky vrought out that really it isnt using the technology and learning to do something new, but learning to teach old information in a new way that is the challenge.  I can completely understand this, I've seen so many teacher in my past who are unwilling to upgrade their classrooms and really the students are the ones paying for their stubbornness.  It is proven in other studies that teaching using technology is raising students scores.

I liked the points Prensky makes about any subject being able to be taught through technology.  I also liked his example of the new software being turned into a game foe people to learn it. He makes a good point in saying that we have to adapt to our environment which is always changing.  I also liked aspects of the other two articles like in the first one listed a gender study was done on people who take online courses. Also that people tend to think they know when a computer is talking compared to a person, yet the studies proved them wrong. 
I think saying that technology is changing the way we learn in a dramatic way is fitting in all three articles. 

Chapter 8 Reflection

One of the things I learned in Chapter 8 was about how people focus on hard ware.  I thought the categories you look at when  deciding on hard ware was insightful (pg. 192). Usually when I think about getting hardware it is just the typical computer, this section informed me that I really need to look at memory and all the other things that go with it.

I liked that the book made a point to say that you can have hardware but without certain software it is pretty much useless.  I actually ran into this problem a few years ago in a college course I was taking.   I had a computer but no word processing software on it. This was quickly remedied by buying the software. 

One piece of advice from this chapter that I plan to use is not being afraid to ask my students for help.  I am fullly aware that I will not always know what the newest technology is and I know younger generations grasp technological concepts quicker.  There is no shame in asking for help.