Bombarded with Thoughts of Technology

It seems like everywhere I turn there is something being said about technology. During our Western Civ unit, we ended with the Industrial Revolution and it talked about how all teh new technology boosted Europe to become a super power. THis opened the door for the Age of imperialism. this is a relevant point because those peoples who were imperialized were those who "fell behind." They lacked the advnaced technolgy to keep up with the changing world.

Connecting this to today's world, I know we have all seen by now the video/powerpoint about the impact that technology has on our world today. The video with startling statistics about the number of users on teh internet, the fast growing cyberworld, the ages of these children using the net, and how technology is changing the way we do business globally, how it effects domestic affairs and what it means for the work force and receeding economy. Thoguh it is exciting that technology is surrpunding us, making us a more efficient, connected, and lively world it is also places fear in many people's hearts. In doing reserch today on the importance of classroom questioning to promote critcal thinkers in teh classoom, the concluding chapter in Ivan Hanel's "Highly Effective Questioning: Developing the Seven Steps to Critical Thinking," he took a "timeout" to revert from strategy implementation to talk about why teaching students to be critical thinkers extends beyond making them good test takers. he explained that "It is only because of the increased need for critcal thinking that the pedgogical role of questioning is so germane." Furthermore, he begins to talk about world competition and also the replacement of human beings with machines.

These statements reminded me of the industrial revolution and the age of imperialism all over again. Technology is forcing us to ensure that our studnets are beceoming life long learners that are adaptable to the ever-changing world. If we fall behind, premonitions of China or India becoming teh next world superpower will come to fruition and leave America wishing and hoping that we used technology to our advantage to remain in the position we are in. We can not remain stagnant in out technological race or our students will be replaced by machines and we will possibly fall victim to some modern day form of technological imperialism. I'm not crazy, and George Bush if you're reading this, this is not by any means a prophesy or threat to the nation. LOL---- little technology lingo meaning Laugh Out Loud!!

Survival Mode

School is winding down and it seems like it went by soooooo fast! I haven;t been able to use much technology in teh classroom lately and in realizing this I began to think how I can weave it into my next unit on 20th Centuryfrom around teh world. I was not able to introduce my discussion board forums as a method of questioning and dialogue during this previous unit so I plan to get it off teh ground after Spring Break at the start of "20th Century." I have expanded my idea to not only have the students in discussion board groups responding to questions and to one another, but to hav them start their own forums based off the historical events that we learn about during the unit. I wnat them to do some type of interactive online notebook (if I can figure out a blog site that can get through the firewalls), and have the students share their thoughts, ideas, and new found understandings ofthe material.I think blogs are a good way to have students become more active participants in tehir success because it causes them to think more deeply about the information and mold it in a way that makes it more personal to them. If anyone reads this and has other ideas I can use, please feel free to respond.