Assignment 3

Media literacy in the 1st Grade:

These children who are 6 years old and in the 1st grade are more technologically advanced than most people I know in college! That alone says that we as future educators are going to have to be well rounded not only in reading, writing and math but also in the world of technology. I am 26 years old and I am just now learning how to blog, make movies on my computer and well, the list just seems to go on. Not to mention next weeks assignment for my EDM310 class is learning how to make a podcast. The terms alone (blog, Facebook, podcast etc.) can be confusing for someone like me. Yeah sure I hear these terms on a daily basis, but it wasn't until now that I am actually starting to learn and really understand what it's all about.

I was fully aware that choosing education as my major would consist of teaching your normal everyday subject, but now we have added technology to the ever growing curriculum, in order to prepare our students for the future. The teachers of 2010, and on are required to teach much more than just basic academics. If you do decide to become a future educator, you must realize that you are going to take on much more of a challenge than educators in the previous years.

Little Kids... Big Potential

Mrs. Cassidy's little kids from Moose Jaw, Canada most certainly do have big potential! They will be the graduation class of 2025. They are using blogs, wikis, webpages and Skype to further their learning. Not all children learn in the same manor or time span. Now that children have access to such tools they are no longer limited to relying on teachers who are only available monday-Friday. Children can now go home and take it upon themselves to learn material that they might have not understood they way they teacher taught it.

I can clearly remember being in elementary school and coming home with homework or projects that were do over the period of a weekend. The problem was I didn't always fully understand how to go about doing it. Thankfully I was lucky enough to have my father around when I needed help with that sort of stuff, but in this ever so modern world that we live in many parents don't have the time to help their children, or may not understand the subject matter themselves, so with that in mind technology can actually serve as a teacher. There's only one condition, and that is, the students must understand how to navigate a computer. Learning how to work with a computer is just as important as any other subject if not more due to the fact that with out it they may not be able to get help until after their homework is already late.

Iphone used by 1 year old baby

Who ever believes that they are going to be a successful teacher without being technologically advanced is in for a rude awakening. Going through life without learning or wanting to know how to use technology is crazy. Hello, toddlers are more advanced than some people today. Why people are proud of being technologically illiterate is beyond me. There is nothing to be proud about if you are technologically illiterate. Some people might say, "oh an IPhone is easy to use, all you have to do is swipe across the screen." The point is he knew exactly what he was looking for. Can you imagine how advance technology will become within the next 10 years? I believe that it will be out of this world.

Podcasts

I must say i have found my adventure with podcast very confusing! There have been several occasions that I have looked up a podcast that was related to certain radio stations that I listen to religiously. I listen to streaming radio often and saw a tab for there podcast, but i must say I still don't quite understand what the point of a podcast is. Of course it's made for staying posted on certain topics but I have always read or watched the news.

The one podcast that I could relate to was kidcast, because it was set up much like a radio station. It discussed how podcast can be used as and educational tool in the classroom which I most definitely agree with. Im sure as I listen to more and more podcast I will learn to like them more than I do now.