Technology increasing parent involvement

This article, “New technology bridges US-Mexico border at Columbus school” was my favorite. Part of the reason was because the article brought up the topic of education being a natural right or a given right. Although these children are U.S. citizens they live in Mexico with their parents and travel across the boarded every day to attend Columbus Elementary School. The fact that some debate against equal education for any child, whether first generation or even immigrant, saddens my heart but that a topic for a different time. It’s understandable that most of these children aren’t going to pass the state’s standardized testing, as the learning gap is to be expected when some come to school never having held a pencil or “used an indoor bathroom”. These students are not only not as academically prepared as students in other parts of the country but also aren’t socially prepared for schools culture either. Some question why we should educate them its obvious most aren’t going to be college student, and the superintendent gave a great answer ‘We want them to be American citizens who can get a job and give back and pay taxes.’ I thought this was a viable point for isn’t this the what education is meant for? If schools aren't meant to educate all children, then what is its purpose?

On a different topic this school models how to use technology to facilitate their needs, by using technology to bridge “language, environmental and opportunity gaps”. Because parents couldn’t come to parent teacher conferences, educators resorted to technology like Skype to bridge the gap. Because phone calls and internet wasn’t available as a solution for all parents a method was found to overcome even this obstacle. The parents were able to gather around in a restaurant and have group meetings with the teachers through a shared internet connection. I thought that this was not only a marker of community unity but also a fascinating way to use technology to solve the problem, even when technology wasn’t available to all. When Skype first came out, like most technology, it was used for entertainment purposes only but finally this technology, after being integrated into society, is starting to be used to benefit our society. In addition I wondered why we this method of using technology to facilitate teacher conferences isn’t used everywhere. All schools could be doing this, since many parents work coming to these parent teacher conferences is not always an option, so making it online could help increase parent involvement. Having an open Skype meeting with groups of parents, or individualized would be beneficial to all. As both teachers, and parents get feedback from this interaction. If a child is struggling and the parents is told then they can try to help their kids. Even if the child is doing well, it would still beneficial, for what parent doesn’t want to hear their kid is doing great, and it brings up moral of the student. This article was very interesting as a whole because all the different topics it brought up and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Play is important everywhere, even in the classroom

The article "Don't Forget to Play!" was about how play is more than just a fun activity. I linked this article to a TED talk that also discussed how play biological and important. 

It talked about how play is an important skill that many drop, as they get older thinking it’s a child thing. However play is more complex, as a child we learned the world through play. Play teaches us how to learn from our environment, how to interact with others, how to be flexible and other skills. Play teaches us about our society, the norms of what is seen as good or bad, such as the fact that it’s good to be competitive but if you are a cheater all the time, no one will want to play with you. Play makes things interesting, it grabs your attention and you are more likely to learn/remember from an experience you enjoy. This is one aspect why play should be in the classroom, but another is the idea that play sets up creative and collaborative environments. These are two skills that Group Genius went to great lengths to explain as these skills are valuable and sought after in the job market. Keeping play in daily life, whether adult or child, is then important.

Finding possiblites in technology

The title of the article “Cool Or Creepy? A Clip-On Camera Can Capture Every Moment” explains the premise of the article, a clip-on camera that takes pictures automatically throughout the day, an interesting topic. I’ll admit that at first the only thing that I could think about, was what some of the authors’ friend thought ‘that’s creepy’ wondering if this was too much technology. It was hard to get my mind away from the thought that people are taking pictures without my knowledge. However, I came to the conclusion that this could be happening this very minute, since I could be taught in the background of some selfie or other picture; but also that if someone wanted to take a discreet picture of me (not saying they’d want to) with the high resolution of cameras even in cell phones, let alone professional cameras, doing this would be easy. As some of our books have taught us, technology of today may seem only fun, but it can have benefits if we think of it as a tool. A comment made in the article “I don't even have to try to remember anything” made me contemplate what this piece of technology could mean for schools. I came up with a use for this technology though I am sure there are better ones. Of course I started with the students. I don’t think that it could be used as a supplement for taking notes off a presentation, since the resolution was bad. Instead I was thinking about its possible uses for hands on activities. For example having this device would be great for laboratory student, not only so that they document the experiment but also as a form of note taking. Although the resolution isn’t great, even having a blurry image is better than no image. Students can look back and notice actions or results that maybe they hadn’t noticed or seen with these images. Another factor is that by looking at the images they are refreshing the experience, remembering the lesson taught, and therefore more likely to take something away from the lesson. Another benefit of this, could be the fact that because its images, students can share these pictures with other people, or possible students who didn’t do that experiment. By sharing their experience they are passing on the knowledge, in a fun and engaging way. The last benefit I could think of was that if students would share these images with their parents, perhaps they’d take an interest in their child’s learning, realizing how fun and difficult it can be.