Digital Tools

     Digital tools in the classroom all come down to funding. How much money does a corporation have to spend on these items for the classroom. An easy answer when budgets everywhere are being slashed and extras like physical education, music, art, and gifted and talented programs are being cut.
     The appliances mentioned in the book are nothing new. Over the last ten years we have all seen this technology develop and evolve from state of the art, only used by those in the know or professionals, into  everyday, every person has them, gadgets. This does create a more affordable product and make them possible to some extent in the classroom. I think deciding which tech options will be the most utilitarian for me will be how I decide what to add if there is funding available.
     The classrooms I have been in over the last couple years had very little, nothing really, in the way of cameras, video recorders, or computers. There were computer labs the entire school shared, that's about it. My hope is there is money for technology out there somewhere, I just have to figure out how to apply for it. Possibly as time goes on technology can be further integrated  and instead of there only being a computer lab, the necessity of each child needing their own on a daily basis will be realized and materialize.
     What I am more interested in for this weeks lesson are the videos we were to watch. Particularly Chris Opitz and the videos on project lead classrooms. Randy Nelson from Pixar had some great points on collaboration and communication. I have spent a bit of time considering them and have taken notes on the speakers to be able to do more research.
    The collaborative learning, multiple intelligence, project lead classrooms fascinate me as future educator. I am not sure if I am right and fear I will not know until I am in a classroom, but it seems we give children information, they learn it and give it back during a test, but do they understand how to apply what they have learned. Do they learn how to think? If we can develop all the ideas within these theories, which some teachers have but they are few and far between, into a new nationwide approach to education, which is what the speakers are trying to encourage, it would revolutionize education. I'm not sure all of their ideas would be applicable in every class, there are some things students just have to learn and while we could use these techniques it may be more efficient not to. The point is the social skills, in-depth learning, and true understanding of what and why they are learning.
      Some of the ideas in the videos are a bit too Montessori method for me. This means they imply students will learn because they want to, which may be true of some but certainly not all students. As a classroom manager it would still be my job to try and inspire the intrinsic motivation they need to receive the most from their education. The social skills, respect, and acceptance given and learned by the students are life skills we all need to make the world better.