Week+3

In week 3 we discussed Ian Jukes readings (**Digital Kids 1 & 2**) now while these pieces of literature were both interesting and informative because **they explained where our students were coming from** they did leave something to be desired in actual practical ways we could do things in the classroom. We talked a lot about how to incorporate cell phones and smart phones into the classroom again and I began to think about how the advent of technology has changed my education in particular because I grew up at a time when technology was beginning to have a wider impact on the classroom. I can remember being in the computer lab and having very limited computer capabilities and then having the school upgrade to a mac lab and finally to the point where I am today that I fully **expect** their to be wireless internet and available computers for each student to use. When we begin to wonder how much time we actually spend using technology in one form or another **it only makes sense that technology would make that leap into our class room.**

 That being said we touched on some interesting moral dilemmas that crop up now that technology is present for everyone to access. The **idea of online translators** was brought up and the class pretty much unanimously stated that that was in fact **cheating**. From there Helen brought up the interesting point of **spell and grammar checkers** as part of **Microsoft Word** for English classes and asked why we allowed that. The obvious answer is that we **cannot realistically stop students from using the spell and grammar checker** but at the same time I believe that while the spell and grammar checker is a useful tool it has to be remember that it can **only make suggestions** and d**oesn't simply compute and spit out information**. In order to make a change **users must review and correct their work** which **strengthens the use of those exact rules for future use**.



We also talked about the use of podcasts as educational tools and how they fit into today's classroom. Please find below my first attempt at a podcast and how I think I could devise a lesson around it.

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