Week+4

In week four we continued our weekly evolution to become the most tech savvy teachers around by initially talking about Apple's newest toy: the **IPAD**. While I didn't think much about this invention at first Bruce was adamant about talking about how it can be used to **revolutionize the face of education**. We also spent some time talking about the idea of slates and how they worked and how they could be used in a classroom setting. We then branched into the ideas that had been expressed by the weeks readings, again about digital natives and how different their culture is really. If you look at the image from week 4 that has the babies with headsets on you'll see that though technology is given a place alongside humanity from birth there is some sort of **insidious quality to the picture**. I don't know if that is just my opinion because I can remember a simpler life when we weren't always plugged in or because there is some sort of underlying fear that we all have towards technology.

Bruce then brought up the issue of **Avatar** and asked why it was such a game changer. We also referenced other works like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Wars and how they offered technological breakthroughs on so many levels. In the case of Avatar it is like **watching a new type of cinema**, and it is exciting to be on the cusp of the cutting edge changes that are taking place. One must believe that James Cameron has taken a genre and plot that have been used countless times and simply said to all the other directors, **do this**. The film's graphics are mesmerizing and it's no shock that an estimated **500 million dollars** (US) were spent on its production. At this point though, considering the staggering amount of money that was spent on entertainment we have to question whether we are making the right moral choices. Can we **justify spending that type of money on a movie** when it could be put to so many greater purposes? But the answer is **technology is too overwhelming and too prominent for us to turn away from it now.**

Bruce then handed out cameras to all of us and told us to go make movies. We discussed **how these could be used in any classrooms** (if the school could afford the equipment) and **made great projects**. With our group of four we made a quick video that took all of 25 mins to create and you can find it below. We discussed how, especially with **children who are timid and afraid to speak publicly** in front of the class you could **have them implement this type of technology** into their work. Also, software like **Movie Maker or Imovie comes preinstalled** onto computers so any student could potentially have the opportunity to use this if they thought they'd like to.

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