Joe's non-netbook

This video was pretty entertaining, but it did bring up the idea that things are changing rapidly for our students, but the tools they are using have not been changed for some time. The world of our students is vastly expanding but we continue to hand students the same books. There are some things that would probably work much better on the internet or on the computer. There are some things, however, that I think we still need to use books for. Personally, I find it difficult to stare at a computer screen to read a long passage and would much rather read it out of a book where I don’t have computer glare and eye strain. I do know though that we have to be aware of what kids are into, and I think it would be good to have the opportunity to have interactive texts for students to use.

As an English teacher we read a lot of books, and to be honest I don’t think I like the idea of having all the literature on the computer, but it would be nice to have some of the interactive features to accompany the text. If we were to have computers in our classroom we would be able to do much more to work with the text. As it is, we can go to the computer lab sometimes to work with outside sources. This might be an unpopular opinion because this is a technology in education class, but I don’t think we need to throw out all books. I think we just need to find how to utilize the tools the computer and other technology have to offer and then integrate them into the classroom. I think that is what makes us most effective.