I was bored so I sent a post from my phone just for kicks.

Random Rambling

I changed my layout because I was bored. I used an image of a sugar glider because it's random. I enjoy random things. I also enjoy reading, so I really like it when an author writes about random happenings. For example, David Sedaris talking about an old couple who look really posh but every other word is an expletive. Now enjoy this random picture.



photo by Mike McCaffrey

Crystal Ball Prediction

After researching One Laptop per Child, I believe that education and society will be greatly affected by it in the future. For example, in the classroom alone, after we had finished our presentation, many of the students in class were supportive of it and said that they would like to participate in the Give 1 Get 1 project because they find the laptop to be such an ingenious product. I think that the OLPC project is a springboard for more things to come in technology in the classroom.
I feel that in the future, the One Laptop per Child project will be in many of the developing countries and will be so prevalent, that we will have mass communications between students in different countries. I think that, along with the OLPC, schools in developed countries will turn more toward technology as well. I think that once more people see what can be done with the XOs, such as class projects involving media and program design, as well as problem solving through program writing and troubleshooting, they will implement some sort of laptop system in their own education.
Overall, I think that the XOs from the OLPC project will usher in a new era of education. where students are the creators of their learning. They will dictate what they learn because the assignments can be more open ended, rather than the current regurgitation that most schools teach. We will have a new generation of problem solvers and innovators. Classes will be more connected because they can utilize mesh networks and work on class projects and even connect with other students around the world. Who knows, maybe one day students will be doing projects in Columbia with students in Mongolia. With this sort of technology, it's possible.

Digital Immigrant/Digital Native

After reading Prensky's articles on the subject of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, I think that I would, for the most part, fall in to the former category. Although I did not have a personal computer at home until the age of around ten, I do vividly remember working on computers in school from about the age of seven. In some ways though, I am a Digital Immigrant, but only in some areas, such as cell phones. I have only recently purchased my own cell phone, so I have much to learn about them, but my knowledge of other techonologies and the troubleshooting skills I've learned with them, will most likely help me if I ever encounter problems with my phone.
I agree with Prensky's assertion that we are teaching children the wrong way. It is hard for a student to learn when instructed with terminology that is not native to them, and vice versa for the instructors. I think that a lot of the problems that arise in education today come from an unwillingness, on the part of the instructor, to "get with the times." It may be harder for people already set in their ways to learn something new, but it isn't fair to ask the younger generation to adapt to old ways that are slowly becoming obsolete. It is almost the same as asking someone to only learn and speak in Latin, a language that hardly anyone uses anymore.
In response to those who have thought that the younger generation is dumb, I think it is easy to dismiss what one doesn't understand. I think that if many of the people in the older generation truly understood how much troubleshooting goes into education with technology, they would see that the younger generation is intellegent. They are also very good problem solvers because with technology, one must be able to find creative ways to work around any obstacle that might arise.

Laddie!

This message is from a Virgin Mobile user. Enjoy.
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New phone that works...hopefully.

Shift Happens

In the Shift Happens video, I was surprised at some of the numbers presented. Such as the text messaging slide, where the video stated that there are more text messages in a day than there are people. I think that although some would say we are losing communication skills, we are also gaining easier connections to people further away. As with anything, the pros and cons of technology depend on the person using it.

Another fact that made me think was the slide about how we are preparing students for jobs that don't exist yet. I find this to be a true yet fascinating concept. Just today I had read about a young nine-year-old boy in China who created and wrote the programming for a finger painting application for the iPhone for his younger siblings. The father said his son had been using computers since he was two. This is just one example of how children are more suited for this new world of high tech than many of us are at this stage in our lives.

Also, the slide about students pursuing technical degrees was not all that surprising to me. I have a degree in Multimedia Design Technology, and from the beginning they told us that what we were learning in class would be outdated by the time we graduated. It was because of this fact, that all professors would always update us on what new technology was out there and what we may have to learn later in life. They were always big proponents of keeping your ear to the ground to keep up on the new technologies that we would have to learn. Even if it was just an update to the new Adobe Suite, we would have to become acclimated to the new features.

Overall, I think that Shift Happens is a good video for anyone to watch, but especially for those who don't really keep up with the newest technologies out there.