Kjones28’s Weblog

I can relate on a very person level to Will Richardson’s point in the first chapter of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I have often remarked to my coworkers that the changes in technology from my birth to now are as drastic as those my great grandmother went through in her life.  She was born with the only transportation being the four legged variety and lived to see the space shuttle launch.  There is a huge difference, though.  The changes in my lifetime are happening at warp speed.  If someone had told me in grammar school that in my lifetime the ability to see the person you were chatting with all the way across the globe in live time would come to pass, I would have refused to believe it.  It seemed totally science fiction.  Yet, here it is.  My biggest challenge has been to keep up.  Technology progresses faster than I can comprehend.  It seems the younger generations have no problem keeping up, and I just get farther and farther behind.  I watch as my children surf, text, chat, and connect with others and feel extremely left out of the loop.  I am very excited as I know this class will change that for me.

I agreed most fervently with the author that technology offers exciting new opportunities to involve students in the learning process.  I do not believe this is optional, I think it is imperative.  The real world demands it.  Education has to keep up and fully engage in the Read/Write Web.  It is extremely frustrating for veteran teachers to have to ask students how something is done on the computer or to “straighten” out the teacher’s computer problem.  However, that is not the student’s problem.  School systems need to insure teachers have access to technology instruction to better offer students the opportunities to utilize the Read/Write Web they not only need, but deserve.  The world is changing and we all need to keep up.