Reflection #7-12

Reflection #12
Another way that online resources benefit the general public is....shopping! I know my mom, and many adults out there are especially grateful for this. The internet has made shopping more convenient and stress-free. Although it may be more expensive with shipping costs, many people find it worth it.

Reflection #11:
One great thing about the information being on the Internet is the ability to teach yourself. There are now many oppurtunities to watch youtube videos or just find articles on how to teach yourself to play an instrument, solve a rubix cube, make a recipe...it's crazy! Personally, I taught myself piano chords, and my boyfriend learned to play the guitar just by finding it online. I love how this is now free and available!

Reflection #10:
When I was looking around for information on the future of technology in education I came upon a youtube video talking about a classroom with an interactive ocean that students could explore. It was really cool! The students could observe ocean life and move around to different sections. An ocean researcher was commenting on how students can observe new discoveries from the classroom instead of having them come down with the divers. I thought this was a great learning experience.

Reflection #9:
For one of my other classes I misunderstood an assignment and I blame it on the increasing amount of reliable information on the Internet! By no means do I mean that this information is bad...it can just cause problems, especially when the directions are given from teacher to student. In one of my classes we were to research a topic using journal articles. What do I, as a member of the technology generation, first think of when I hear the phrase "journal articles"? Not the paper and ink kind of thing of course! I think of the online databases with thousands of journal articles. So, to start my assignment I tried to find the journals my instructor was talking about but couldn't (this was because they were in the library literally, not just on the library's database). So, not knowing what to do, I found an article relevant to the assigned topic from a different journal. After I turned it in my instructor was confused and talked to me about it and we realized the misunderstanding. Thankfully, she accepted the work I did. This just goes to illustrate the gap that has been created in understanding sources of information from one generation to the next. Sometimes what our students might be thinking of will be different than what our older brains come up with.

Reflection #8:
I am amazed at all the things blogging is being used for! When I was doing my research on they future of technology and education articles on that topic were on blogs! It made me realize that there really are serious topics and issues being discussed by important people on blogs. I used to think that blogging was unreliable and purely subjective, which it can be, but as my horizon has opened I have found blogs being used very effectively in a role that is reliable and important.

Reflection #7:
My exposure to blogging within in the educational world is very limited and probably is only limited to the things we have seen in this class--so I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon the use of blogging while inquiring about an assignment for another class. In my Special Needs in Education class we are required to interact with people with special needs in some context and the Special Olympics is an option. I found their website and emailed the point person. This person gave me some brief information but then pointed me to the Special Olympics BLOG. It was so helpful! There was up to date information on events, scores from previous events, news, pictures, and so on. It made me smile and immediately think about this class. It was very cool to see the organization using something like blogging to inform and give option for interaction.