Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

This video says it all!!! I have not had a class with over 100 students in a while, but when I had those classes I was lost in the crowd. The teacher cannot focus on you because, not only does he or she have your 100+ class, he or she also has two or three other classes the same size. The same can be said about elementary and secondary schools. A few of my classes in high school had so many students, that we had to borrow desks from neighboring classrooms. In high school, almost all of the teachers knew my name but that was on a smaller scale compared to college. At Auburn, none of my teachers knew my name except when I began taking my methods classes because I saw the same teachers for two years!!! Those classes were not large so it was easier to remember our names.

I have had plenty of classes where a classmate has been on roll the entire semester but never showed up; not for tests, mandatory classes or anything!!! That is money wasted because the student never showed up to class. That is one less student the teacher has to worry about and one less student hindering the teacher from remembering my name. Now for those who do show up, you have the few who have their laptops with them. Nine times out of ten, what is on the screen of their laptop is not related to what we are doing in class. The most famous thing to do when in class and you have your laptop is to search FACEBOOK!!! Just this past Saturday in my Health class, one of my fellow classmates spent his time on facebook while the professor was going over a chapter.

The section that really spoke to me was how a day in the life of a college student is spent and how many hours our day consists of. I am lucky if I get 7 hours of sleep each night because I have a 3 month old at home:) Things have not really peaked here at USA for me but when I was at Auburn I really thought that I had invented my own perception of time. There were not enough hours in the day for what I had to do. The icing on the cake is that when I graduate, with huge bags under my eyes, I am going to be in debt!!! I worked my tail off to be in debt. Really?!

Now to make this video really capture my overall college experience, I would add a Black student surrounded by White students but with empty seats around the Black student. Racism still exists and I have been treated like I was not even in the classroom by classmates. This is a major issue I faced in two or three classes while in college. I chose to go to a school with students who did not resemble me for a reason. I had gone to high school and middle school with Black students and thought that by going to a college with a low number of Black students compared to White students I would have a broader experience. But in doing so, I was treated like I did not exist.

Kelly Hines: "It's Not About the Technology"

In Mrs. Hines' post, the importance of technology in the classroom was discussed. Her opinion on how much emphasis should be placed on technology in the classroom is one that I share. I believe technology is important in the classroom but I am one who is eager to learn more about the software and websites that are readily available to me as a future mathematics teacher. I also believe that there is no use in a school system paying for expensive equipment and software when the teacher is not willing to learn more about it. I do think, however, that a teacher would do her class an injustice if he or she did not take the time to learn to be a better teacher. I am not saying that technology should be a sole means to teaching in the classroom but I do think that it is an added bonus.

Mrs. Hines also lists what a successful teacher is. I have listed a couple already but to elaborate on it I will say that a teacher has to be effective and successful before technology is introduced into the classroom. I can appreciate her saying that no matter how long you have been teaching a certain way and no matter how many students got it previously, if there is one student who is not learning, then your plan is ineffective and you have to do what is necessary to make sure that student and everyone else is learning what you are teaching. Just because you are the teacher does not mean you stop learning. The classroom teaches you everyday how to become a better teacher. Basically, technology cannot be implemented until you are able to reach your students without it.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

As a Secondary Mathematics major I can relate on how it seems to be more socially acceptable to NOT know mathematics but NOT socially accepted to NOT know how to read. One is not better than the other; they are equally important. This really stuck out to me and I just had to elaborate on it. Technology can be incorporated in just about every subject taught at schools, including both reading and math. It takes a motivated educator to do what is necessary to learn the information and share it with his or her classroom. If the teachers do not know and the parents do know, then how can expect our children to know about technology?! Kids learn quickly. As soon as iPods, iPhones, cell phones, etc., became popular, they basically taught themselves and each other how to use them. I can recall, as a kid, having to put together and setup every electronic device in our house because my mom did not know what to do. I figured it out and showed her what I did. The same continues today; I have to show her how to do things on her laptop but she has made efforts to learn things on her own and she has pretty much mastered emailing:) Our world is becoming a technological pool and we have to keep up and produce future educators, engineers, architects, doctors, and lawyers who can also keep up. Something new is always readily available to replace the new gadget of yesterday, literally!

I took a similar class to this one at Auburn University and I enjoyed learning new things and reviewing what I already knew. Mathematics is everywhere but our students have not yet grasped that concept. I have learned how to make mathematics more enjoyable through the use of technology. Even something as simple as Microsoft Excel can be exciting to students who have had no exposure. Technology is not the answer to all of our problems as educators, but the rewards for our students to have exposure to it is exponential! As a product of the public school system, I can honestly say that there was a lack of technology in the classroom. We had a few computers in the classroom but they were more for recreational purposes than anything else. Had we explored software, such as Geometer's Sketchpad, I may have had a better understanding for geometry for example (I really missed out in Geometry because the educator became pregnant and left the beginning of the year and we were stuck with substitute after substitute). My senior math educator had been teaching for about 25-30 years which meant technology was unheard of to her. Educators must be held responsible and, as Mr. Fisch said, so should the schools, school systems, etc.

Plagiarism and copyright regulations

Plagiarism is not hard to do and at the same time it is simple to avoid. When I was in elementary and middle school, plagiarism was not heard of in the classroom. I can remember copying, word for word, out of the encyclopedia whenever I had a report due during Black History Month! I was not told that it was wrong and I did not have a teacher who said anything about it. I did not get hip about the "P" word until high school and that is when everything changed. It forced me to expand my vocabulary and read for understanding. Since I had not put things in my own words previously, the transition was a bit daunting but I quickly got over it. It was easy for me but for some it was not happening quick enough or not happening at all! Plagiarism is something that should be explained early on in a students' educational career :) How can you penalize them for doing it when they have been doing it for so long? I am not saying I am for plagiarism at all but all I am saying is that teachers should be held accountable for stressing he in's and out's of plagiarism in elementary and middle school.

In saying that, plagiarism is WRONG!!! Those who you copy from and give no credit to , worked hard to put together and publish their thoughts and it is immoral to write it as your own. As I said earlier, plagiarism is easy to do if you do not know the rules for citing someone's work. Simply changing a few words with your handy thesaurus is not good enough. By the same token, your work should not be one big quote either. Students in college get in serious trouble if they are caught plagiarizing. You risk getting kicked out of your program and not receiving credit for that class. It is not difficult to read something and formulate your own opinion about it. Simply said, if you are unsure about whether or not you are plagiarizing, give credit where it is due just to cover yourself.

Tools used for alternative web browsing

Mr. Sullivan's PowerPoint presentation was an eye opener. You hear so much about race related laws and racial discrimination that you forget about the laws that protect those who suffer from a disability. He lists several federal laws (The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The American's With Disabilities Act and The Telecommunications Act of 1996) and guidelines (W3C, WAI, WCAG 1.0 and 2.0, ATAG, XAG and UAAG) which make web browsing easier and convenient for persons with disabilities. He also lists software that are used to assist blind, deaf and paralyzed citizens who access the Internet. From screen magnification software to voice recognition software, there is a product out there for everyone. There is also screen reader software too!

Screen magnification software makes text larger on the computer screen and it also reads text aloud. This is ideal for persons who are do not have adequate eyesight or suffer from learning disabilities. Screen reader software reads an entire screen and also navigates a site through speech. With this software, the keyboard is used to enter commands. This is ideal for persons who are blind. Voice recognition software performs commands by speaking into a microphone. This is ideal for persons who suffer from crebral palsy or any other disability which limits the use of hands. Although the second link that listed tools and software for the accessibility for all was not well maintained, I was able to view a couple of software programs that made things a bit easier for persons with disabilities. EMACSPEAK allows blind people to be independent computer users and HAL reads a screen to a blind person and also uses Braille.
This information can be found at Mr. Stephen Sullivan's blog.