Sunday, September 26, 2010

Week Three Responses

As I was reading “The Technology Enthusiasts’ Argument”, I was particularly drawn to the comment that as a society we are more likely to interact more with people outside our community than our own locale. The changes in technology have opened a window to the other side of the world…one which we want to look into, but yet often are hesitant to let others see our side, something of a one-way mirror. In order to fully understand what is happening on the other side of the mirror, it’s important that we have a better understanding of other cultures. What is considered as important and valuable in our society could be seen as insignificant and useless to another people. How will we recognize these differences? Will we perceive this cultural divide with an attitude of superiority? And how can we extrapolate both the visual and obscured content without rushing to judgment? As an educator I must always be on the lookout for ways to provide avenues for other perspectives to thought and opinions. This is but one more reason as to why personal reflection should be essential in my daily routine.

Technology can engage young brains in a robust manner, allowing them to work on realistic tasks or pushing them deep into atypical worlds. One of the biggest changes in the past ten years is how we all tend to learn content by Googling and then ponder how we are going to apply this information. This approach is often a statement about how nothing is taken for granted, and everything has to be experienced first-hand. While this may seem true today, we all have to realize that there isn’t enough time in the day to “do it all”…hence setting time aside to determine what is most important to us.

The Advance Search Google exercise was a little reminder about using all the tools which are at our discretion. All too often we fumble around looking for information and the content and assignment was time well spent!

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