Podcast

After viewing the podcast of the FETC conference, I realized how important technology is becoming. One thing from the presentation that I found extremely interesting was how technology is changing the world outside of education. Richardosn and Mancabelli talk about how technology is affecting journalism, politics, and business.

In the journalism field, blogging is becoming important. A newspaper in Houston is using a blog to have a conversation model of journalism. This fact alone shows how important blogging can be. Now students who enjoy blogging can become journalists. Furthermore, Richardson and Mancabelli discuss citizen journalism. People, who are not trained photographers or videopgrapher, are using camera phones or video cameras to capture important moments and publish them. They can put them on youtube and broadcat them across the Internet. Journalist now are asking the question how can we incorporate technology?

Blogs are also becomig very popular in politics. In the presentation Moncabelli and Richardson both describe how John Edwards and Hillary Clinton have blogs. Citezens can communicate with these indiviuals and offer suggestions. By having political blogs, canidates can actually see what the citizens awnat and need. Furthermore, canidates will aslo see the public as real people because now what they san can be recorded and broadcasted over the Internet.

Lastly, the business industry has integrated technology to enhance business. In order to be effective in the business world, people now have to look at business as a conversation. The owner of GM even integrated a blog into his business.

Now the question that emerges from all of these examples is why aren't schools integrating technology into the classroom. After hearing about these examples of how technology is changing the world, we should be thinking about Warlicks question, but I think that the answer is apparent. Technology and integrating it into as much instruction as possible is necessary and is what should be taught.

After viewing this podcast I really witnessed the benefits of integrating technology into the classroom. Honestly though, we shouldn't be integrating it; we should be focusing our instruction around it. I thought that the part of the podcast where Mancabelli and Richardson talk about reflection is interesting. HNot only does reflection allow students to thoroughly understand the lesson, but it lets students who have a hard time articulating their thoughts a chance to speak out our blog. By having a blog, students can reflect about world issues, books, class discussions, and have teahcers see their intelligence and involvement in the class.

Another interesting part of the podcast was how technology and media can help with differentiated instruction. For those of you who haven't done student teaching, differentiated instruction is hard. Anything that could help teacher find ways to help students learn is worth trying. Richardson and Mancabelli illustrate how videos can tap into a channel that helps students learn. And while we teach students to work on media we can teach them writing in context of the video. I think that this is a great idea!

This podcast really helped me see the advantages that technology can offer students. Technology is a part of our society. It isn't going anywhere, so as educators we must embrace it and help our students understand it.