Interactivity #4

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai7nSURhHiO0dHlRUnBDeVpleFVNRllsU3kzLS13clE&pli=1#gid=0

I chose this lesson because I feel that the importance of the Civil War in economic terms has been greatly underestimated. Included in this lesson plan was several tools to allow students, even at a young age, to explore the economic issues surrounding the South and also to allow them to see the Souths reliance on the North to process the slave extracted resources from the South. The blending of technology into the lesson plan makes for a wider understanding of the situation and allows the student to connect to the topic in a more thought provoking way. The goal of the lesson plan in the end is to have the students understand the underlying issues of the souths economy and how the lack of industrialization in the south would lead to the Norths dominance over the south, and their perceived need to rebel.

I would have liked to see a larger emphases on technologies which was lacking slightly. There could be a wider focus on the other aspects of these technologies and adding some things like allowing the students to do research on their own, creating independent projects using technology and exploring the documents more using the Internet.

Interactivity #1

The three most influential communications technologies in my life are my laptop, my cell phone, and social media websites.

"Olivia's Story" is an important look at this generations connection to technology. In todays society nearly everyone, and especially when looking at the youth, is connected in some way to technology. Olivia represents the youths connection to technology, while at the same time having limited access to those technologies. As a future teacher I have to understand the circumstances of my students and realize that all student may not have access to the same technologies I have access too. However, Olivia also shows that young people will find a way to access the technologies which their peers can access.

"Learning to Change, Changing to Learn" paints and interesting picture of technology and its potential for educational use. Students can show many different ways which they may use technology in their personal lives, but they also use technology for educational uses. For these students technology has merged their academic lives and their personal lives. The video shows that though there can be disadvantages to using technology in the classroom, the positives out way the negatives.

In my life there are few things as important to me than my laptop. Im am able to stay connected at all times with the world around me and I am able to use it for researching a paper, homework help, and even to take online classes. Incorporating laptops in the classroom is a vital step towards incorporating technology in the classroom. The second two technologies are not a useful in the classroom setting. Cell phones keep people connected to everyone anywhere, and in a classroom this can be very distracting. Social networking has not found a place in the classroom, yet. In the future I hope that a educational use for social networking can be found as it has great potential and students already have a great connection to social networking.