Thursday, February 10, 2011

Reflection

I must admit that I learned more from this book than I had had expected to gain. I really did not have the best attitude when I began the book. I must say now that I feel better informed and more ready to try to challenge my students more.
I am both excited and fearful for my students as they face new challenges and new problems moving through the 21st century. I don't believe that schools (I mean teachers and administrators) do enough to prepare our students as a whole for what they are about to face. Some things that really caught me attention while reading this book were companies/employers having to train/re-train employees and the expectations that they have for students coming into the workforce.
I don't think that many of our students in rural South Dakota understand what will be required of them in the future. I think that by trying some of the strategies in this course I can help them, but I am not a digital native, and so my history differs from theirs.
There were several references to the SARS project. I applaud the young people who took part in that. That being said, I don't know many students who are ready now to undertake something of that magnitude. They may be intrigued by it, but are not prepared to do it.
I hope that what I gained was the direction, the motivation to help my students embrace the use of technology to learn. They are not afraid of technology now they just need to harness it for productive use.

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