Double Entry Journal #1

“When we criticize students for making digital videos instead of reading “Gravity’s Rainbow,” or squabbling on Politico.com instead of watching “The Candidate,” we are blinding ourselves to the world as it is. And then we’re punishing students for our blindness.”

Heffernan, V. (2011, August 7). Education needs a digital-age upgrade. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/

     Times have changed and some teachers have changed with new technology and others have stayed in the dark and ignored technological progression. As teachers we need to keep children excited about learning. We will not be doing our students any good if we are not keeping their attention, because children are not learning properly when they are board. If “we are blinding ourselves” (Heffernan) to what is happening outside our schools in real business situations then our students are not going to be prepared for their future career, and isn't school there to help prepare our nation's youth for their future jobs. Of all my high school teachers only one, my Spanish teacher, tried to use technology to keep the class interested, she created a blog for us to post as characters in a play we had been reading, and this allowed her to see if we were understanding the story/Spanish and allowed us to build our own ideas about the characters. Another activity she had us do involved using a flip camera to make our own video based off of three characters in a short story we had read, doing this allowed for us to work in groups, make a creative script, and allowed her to listen to our accents. Honestly I was more excited to enter her classroom than any other and her keeping our interest might be the main reason I want to teach Spanish. If we want to keep our students excited about learning and prepare them for the future then shouldn't we make our classroom an exciting and up to date learning environment?

Technology in the classroom, this video I found on YouTube shows activities students are doing for their classes using various types of technology and their gratitude for the teachers who are integrating technology into their classrooms.

kgilrocks. (2008, October 8). Technology in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoIf55oyBoc&feature=related