Forum+Feb+8,+2011

To do list:
 * 1) Respond to the topic below by:
 * 2) entering your name
 * 3) entering several paragraphs of your formal response based on the ideas and literature shared in chapter 2 of the textbook (you can run your draft in the Google Doc if you would like and the others from class can help you with proofreading)
 * 4) Respond to the questions in the wiki discussion
 * 5) Add your personal issues regarding technology and schooling on the reservation
 * 6) Any additional material (especially multimedia, such as YouTube videos) is added in our Facebook group

- “Advances in computer technology have made the classroom unnecessary, since students and teachers are able to communicate with each other from computer terminals at home or at work.”

Bandy Poitra

There are great strides made in computer technology in this day and age, it is hard to breathe a sentence in school sytems today without having technology come into it somehow. “You can no longer take on a professional development agenda without a technology component,” Kimball argues. That statement really relays how important it is for teacher's to become more tech savvy and integrate it more and more into their sytem but at the same time eliminating the need for the traditional classroom. The feeling to move more towards a technology driven district is spreading far and wide and it become apparent, that without taking on this challenge we will fall farther and farther behind in the educational system. As one educational director of so blatantly put it “It’s now become apparent to everyonethat if schools aren’t using technology to improve student learning, they will fall behind,” (pg. 42 statements like these are what will render the traditional classroom useless sooner rather than later. (Schachter, 2010)  There are many examples of how the classroom is being rendered useless, whether it be communicating with parents via instant messaging or by creating a blog for teachers and administrators to collaborate on interview questions for future hires. Now is it a good thing that technology is moving towards classrooms without borders, that is an answer that is still up for debate, even though most districts are starting to incorporate it somehow it doesn't mean they are on board one hundred percent but rather just going forward with the latest trend just so they don't get left behind if it holds on. Schachter, Ron. Nov 2010, District Administration; Vol. 46 Issue 10, p41-45, 5p  Sally Steele   I agree that computer technology make classrooms unnecesarry. We as college students are doing that right now in technology for teachers. It has become hard a certain points but we can over come these obstacles with the help of our class peers.Teleconferencing, in the future, may decrease or replace the traditional classroom ; it may achieve equilibrium in schools, or put poorer counties at a great disadvantage. Advantages of using the information highway for education include reducing the constraints of time and place, the ability to playback lessons, distance learning for outreach programs to the handicapped. (Noor Al Dean, 1994)  There can also be a major downside to using technology in the classrooms. It is argued that implementing technological activities in the early years settings has beneficial results in children's learning, when children interact with each other and adults guide discreetly their activities. In contrast, children's individual overuse of computer activities may have negative effects on their learning and behaviour. (Theodotou, 2010) The benefits of teamwork and collaboration have long been advocated by many educational theories, such as constructivist and social learning models. Among the various applications of collaborative learning, the iterative team-based learning (TBL) process proposed by Michaelsen, Fink, and Knigh t (2002) has been successfully used in the classroom without computer support. the implementation and evaluation results of a classroom application of the TBL process, which was modified to include computer mediation. We call this process computer -supported team-based learning (CS-TBL). This work extends learning in small teams from the traditional classroom to the hybrid classroom where students meet both face-to-face and online by emphasizing the importance of online team interactions. The outcomes are assessed through an evaluation model that considers the impact of motivation, enjoyment and team contributions on learning outcomes. The study results indicate that motivation influences the relationship between team interactions and perceived learning. Enjoyment is affected by motivation and perceptions of team members' contributions, with the implication that students who perceive that the team interactions are adding value to their education will better enjoy learning and will experience higher-level learning outcomes.(Gomez, 2010)   I believe we as Native American student's live in a complete different type of world than even the city that is 70 miles from us. I feel our reservation is behind the rest of the country and i'm sure that other reservations are in the same perdicament as our reservation. Our school systems do need to aquire more technologies to be intergrated into the classrooms because our America is going to all run on technology one day. Resources: Online Submission, Paper presented at the International Scientific Conference (Piraeus, Greece, Sep 15-18, 2010)

Computers & Education, v55 n1 p378-390 Aug 2010   Kisten Morsette   I hate to admit it because of my own insecurities about technology, but I to believe classrooms in the traditional sense are becoming a pactice of the past. Technology is being integrated in almost every lesson teachers do, because it helps make "connections" in material presented by teacher, it is used as visual aids, and it is used to dazzle students, making lessons more appealing hence students retain more information. Educators are stuggling as to how they are going to bring test scores up, and teach students problem solver skills and how to be indepentdant learners. Todays technology has offered the key to do both. Goddard, M. (2002). What Do We Do with These Computers? Reflections on Technology in the Classroom. //Journal of Research on Technology in Education//, 35(1), Retrieved on (Febrary10, 2011) From EBSCO//host//.

Robert White

I feel we need to keep classrooms technology is going way over the top of trying to eliminate the classroom. We need to keep life real like long ago and I feel that althougth technology can be good at times we still need our classrooms.

It is reasonable to speculate that even technology savvy teachers have problems in employing effective strategies to find relevant information on the internet. Today's language educators are confronted by a call to integrate new technologies into their teaching from the media, government, school administrators, colleagues, parents, and learners. In spite of this call, the percentage of teachers who have effectively integrated new technologies into the curriculum is still relatively low. Surveys have shown that language teachers are often reluctant to use computers in their lessons because they lack training or hands-on experience of how to use information and communication technologies (ICT). (Lewis, 2010)

Here on the reservation the children need more guidance and to be show more hands on activities. In another place in a city it might be ok to live on technology but here in our world we need help at the hand.

Biblography:

G. Lewis Oxford University Press 2010, 96 pp., £9.50