Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Blog Post #10

Adventures in Pencil Integration

     Above is a picture where John Spencer compares a Papermate pencil to a Ticonderoga. The Ticonderoga pencil is a more expensive pencil. It is considered top of the line and has better quality when compared to a Papermate. The picture argues that the Papermate costs less, but will break all of the time. Considering that I am reading this blog as an assignment, I assume that it can also be comparing technology like the Mac and the PC. Dr. Strange loves to tell us how much better a Mac is! Macs are becoming very popular today and although they are more expensive they seem to be of better quality (features,ways to explore,the different software that it automatically comes with etc..). Some may say that it goes right along with the famous saying, "you get what you pay for". So, Mac or PC? What do you think?

I read "Why Were Your Kids Playing Games" after putting my thoughts together about the picture above. This post is a scenario between Mr. Spencer and his principal who evidently is not concerned about having lesson plans that are student centered. Even though what Mr. Spencer was doing clearly related to teaching his students, it was frowned upon by his principal. 
I also took a look at his blog post "Remember Pencil Quests".
I definitely DO NOT! My answer is the reason behind the whole idea of the post though. Mr. Spencer thinks back on how excited he and his classmates were when he was in high school to be doing a pencil quest. I on the other hand, have no idea what that is. He states that today, his students are excited about blogging and networking with pen pals. With the rapid increase of new technologies, Mr. Spencer can only imagine how his students will look back and wonder how they ever thought these things were exciting. Think about it. Who knows what we will be using in our classrooms to engage students and these "exciting, new" ways of today will be extinct!


Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please?
 By Dr. Scott McLeod
     I explored Google and learned that  Dr. McLeod  evidently understands the importance of being able to effectively communicate using the tools of today. This guy is on twitter, delicious, FaceBook, YouTube and more. He is blogging! Almost everything that I saw that he is affiliated with, we have been encouraged to join as well. 
     In this post he has a funny way of informing the reader of the importance of having your kids step outside of the box. He encourages the use of outside learning such as blogging and creating PLN's to foster a better learning environment. He explains that there are in fact some negative things that the internet can be used for but the success of a technological literate student far outweighs the negativeness. I did not know that there were so many things to be done in the classroom using technology. Before this class, a lot of what he said may have been foreign but not now!  Through out this course I have learned that there are those people who really understand the major affects that the use of technology will have on students' success and those who are ignorant to it. This was a nice, sarcastic way of getting the point across. The truth of the matter is, that we simply cannot keep our students sheltered and expect them to be successful in such a technological diverse world! 

2 comments:

  1. The first part of the assignment was to explain the cartoon. Papermate is a metaphor for a PV. Ticonderoga is a metaphor for a Mac. The cartoon characters resemble the stars of the long series (66 over 4 years) of Apple ads starring John Hodgman as PC and Justin Long as Mac.

    2. The second part of the assignment was to read the post Why Were Your Kids Playing Games? , read at least one other post, create a link to in on your post, write a quality post about the two posts you read.

    3. The third part of the assignment was to read the post and some comments by previous students and then to discuss your position on the arguments made by Dr. McLeod.

    In addition you were to send Tweets to Mr. Spencer and Dr. McLeod.

    You got the metaphor in the cartoon.

    You got the message Mr. Spencer was sending via the cartoon.

    You got the metaphor of Mr. Spencer's post (pencils=computers).

    You got the satire of Mr. McLeod.

    You got the message of Mr. McLeod.

    I have not yet checked to see whether you sent the Tweets.

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  2. Great post, I especially like the part when you summed up Mr. McLeod post. I could not have said it any better myself. Your last sentence in this post made an outstanding point; I wish more people would realize this. Keep up the good work!!!

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