Some Thoughts after Reading the Two Articles: Changing the Game and Emerging Technologies

It is good idea to suggest my school to provide some new technology workshops as you said. My school did not provide the new technology workshops and I would always like to attend these workshops. I wish we would have more these kinds of information. Where can I get more information on this? My school is a small school and so we rely heavily on the workshops from outsides.
Regarding the articles we read for this week, it did open my eyes. The music teacher in my school allows students to use ipod to listen to any different kind of music. Students love it, however, some kind of contract need to be made to assure they are not using that improperly, such as using it in the class other than music class. Another problem is not every student in my district has ipod. My school is defined as an Abbott School District which means the schools within the poor community, therefore, ipod or MP3 is not commonly owned by students. Therefore, when we consider using the new technology into our curriculum, we need to take into this consideration. As a matter to fact, the students in my community tend to have lower motivation for learning, their learning space mostly in the classrooms, and hence they do have more need to be introduced to new technology since new technology brings them to new learning space which can enhance their learning motivation. Actually, their learning potentials are as great as the students from the wealthier community. Their performance would be as good as the students from other community if they have engaged into new technology more. Experiencing with different learning space provides them more learning opportunities.

Video games allow students to have more learning space besides the traditional classrooms. Students will learn better problem solving skills from playing video games. They need to develop their own strategy when they encounter new challenges; they need to manage their own frustration while they are advancing the problem solving skills. Yes, they learn from their failures just like we do in our real life.

If only the administration can read those articles and support new technology to be used in curriculum. Teachers need to be trained, especially the old fashion teachers and administration. Not only does the community need to support the school to incorporated new technology into school curriculum, also the administration need to attend new workshops and obtain new knowledge about new technology. My school blocks all suspicious websites including youtube on teacher’s computer. We can’t do better without administration’s acknowledged and support. After all, we are afraid to face contradict criticism from supervisors.
There is one thing we can be sure: years later, when we become the administration, we will easily cross over the obstacle and the new generation will have more learning space for their education.