Thing 2

Yesterday my oldest grandson, my niece and I took the "Grand Tour' of Michigan State University. The kids took the tour as I imagine high school students of today take a college tour. My niece was awed by the size of MSU, my grandson was awed by the fact that he qualifies for Honors College and all it can offer to him. I, on the other hand, viewed MSU through much different eyes than I did as a student or even as I would have 2 weeks ago.

As I walked through Wells hall I kept remembering the video from Thing One, A vision of students today. You all will remember the video clip opens showing an empty auditorium and the statement "Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented classified patterns subjects, and schedules." Marshall McLuhan 1967 and I thought OMG! When will we change the way we're teaching our future?

I began to look around in each building we entered, looking for technology. I realize that it's summer and equipment may be locked away somewhere but I wanted to see it being used at my alma mater. We did watch a power point presentation prior to our tour and I couldn't help but notice that the presenter was not showing the full screen but rather was allowing all the pages of the power point to run along side of her presentation. She didn't seem to notice and I thought boy, she needs to become a bit more proficient in her Power Point presentations. Now, I think that's a simple piece of technology to use but I'm guessing she didn't feel the same way.

So, on one hand I'm nervous about this class and on the other hand I'm excited about this class. I do not like being moved out of my comfort zone although I realize I have much to learn. I want at the very least not to sound like an idiot when around people who speak technologically around me.

For my students (all LD except for 2 with autism) I want to begin to expose them to as much technology as I can. My fear is they will learn something and then it will change and they will once again be lost. I know their learning styles and know that they need many more exposures to a topic or item for them to learn it. I'm wondering how I can apply what I learn here to be able to change my way of teaching. We shall see...