Some people say drill and practice is really "drill and kill." What can teachers do to make sure this kind of use doesn't happen and drill and practice can serve a useful function?

Teachers need to make sure that students understand the meaning behind the lesson before drill and practice is used. For example a student needs to understand what addition is, be able to describe it, be able to explain it, give examples of what it is, and then they need to memorize their addition facts. If they do not have that foundation of what addition is prior to memorizing addition facts, then there is no motivation to memorize them. Drill and practice is a needed thing. We don’t want adults to whip out their fingers when asked a basic addition problem. So basically teachers can teach meaning before drill and practice to make it a useful function.

Some educators feel that distance technologies will greatly improve education; some feel
education will suffer if they are overused. What are factors you can cite in support of each of these positions?

Distance learning can greatly improve education in that the exposure is boundless. Students can access just about any information using the internet, and can connect with people who have had different exposures. It can also give people the opportunity to get an education with a non flexible schedule. Usually when you take on online class you can do the work at any time that works for you. Distance learning also provides students with an exposure to technology that they may not be inclined to use. For example, I don’t think I would have ever started my own blog, had it not been for this class.

The down side of distance learning is that it may not be everything that we think it is. A lot of us have known people who have taken an online course only to either flunk out, or drop the class. The fact is that it takes a lot of motivation and organization to complete the course. Another problem is that as teachers we are often telling parents to limit TV time, or computer time so that kids can do their homework or read, but if they are taking an online course, we are encouraging them to sit in front of the computer. While it may be educational, it is hard for some students to understand the difference.

Week 9 Discussion

Describe issues related to training special education teachers to use technology.


Time and money would have to be the biggest issues related to special ed. Teachers using technology. Special Eduaction teachers are required to do a lot of paper work and individualized planning, and while technology may make things easier for the student, and teacher, it may take more planning on the teachers part. Finding time to train is difficult for a lot of teachers regardless of their specialization, but for a special education teacher it would be more difficult I would think because of all of the other trainings that they must attend. Money would be another factor. When a teacher goes to training it is usually during the school day and a substitute teacher must be payed for. On top of the sub funds, the training may need to be paid for by the school depending on the type of training that they are being sent to.


Give examples of no-tech, low-tech, and high-tech solutions for special students.


No tech solutions could be to have a peer help a student to read things to them. A low tech solutions could be to enlarge print. A high tech solution could be using a reader program that reads a highlighted section of text out loud.

Social Studies and the Internet

What are the "history wars," and what are their implications for technology use in history?


The history wars refer to a difference of opinion on how to teach social studies. One group of people think that we should teach it chronologically, the way a lot of us have learned most of our history. The other group suggests that we teach history in the form of lessons that each piece of history teaches us. For example, instead of teaching about World War I, then World War II, then the Vietnam War, teach about wars and how they affect a culture, why they are good, or bad. Certainly use those wars as an example, but they are merely examples, and do not make up the entire lesson. When I graduated from highschool I had taken the normal amount of history, in the typical history format. When I went to Northwest Vista however, they had switched to the other form, I remember feeling a little lost on what I was studying. We would read primary sources about different things, and I was lost. I think it takes an adjustment, and that is hard for a lot of people, but I do think that once the adjustments have been made, a lot of learning could come from teaching the concepts.

With students' ready access to information on the Internet, what might be the concerns of
social studies teachers?

I think teachers should obviously be concerned with legitimate information, and helping students understand that it is not all correct, and also how to find the correct information. But teachers should also be concerned with teaching the correct internet ettiquete. If we want our students to understand that there is incorrect information out there, then maybe we should teach our students to post things that are correct, or even how to use the internet appropriatly.

Media Literacy vs. Print Literacy

Wikipedia defines media literacy as the process of analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. It defines print literacy as the ability to read, write, speak and listen in meaningful or socially-recognized ways. One question that comes to mind when reading these two definitions is how a student would be able to comprehend media literacy without print literacy? Media literacy is a form of print literacy it seems. I think that both are very important, especially in this day and age. However, it seems that as technology improves, society thinks that we are going to get rid of the old ways. I remember when I was in college and professors and students would sometimes say that we were all going to be replaced by computers anyway. Now we have come to realize that is not going to happen. While computers are very important, teachers will not be replaced by them. Same goes with print literacy versus media literacy. Media literacy is very important, it provides people with amplitude of ways to communicate and process information, but none of this will be possible without the ability to read and write.

Tip Model Phase 2- Determining the Relative Advantage

I don't think the issue is that teachers did not see the advantage of the technology at hand. I think the issue is the time to implement the new technology. Even with something as simple as the internet, you have to teach responsibility, how to search the internet, where to get real and valuable information. Teachers are required to teach so much, in so little time, and make sure the students are ready for TAKS. If you are concerned that your students are not doing so well in reading, and the reading TAKS is comping up, you are going to focus on reading, anything extra is pushed to the backburner. Lack of training would also be a problem. If teachers are not comfortable with any new technology chances are they are not going to learn how to use it on their own unless they learn about new technology on their own free time. If the superintendent would have sent over someone to train the teachers on how to instruct using the internet, then it probable would have been used more appropriately.
If I was responsible for integrating technology into instructional activities, I would provide lesson plans for the teachers to start out using in a way that would benefit them so that a needed lesson was taught, and the students so that they learned about new technology and what their teacher needed to teach. Once teachers are exposed and feel at ease, then it will become more regular to use the technology and easier for them to see how to use it. As long as the technology can cover an academic area that a teacher needs to focus on, then it will be a