Quotes about Technology

Albert Einstein tends to be a good source of quotes on many subjects. Here are some of his quotes about technology that I like:

"More and more I come to value charity and love of one's fellow being above everything else... All our lauded technological progress--our very civilization--is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal."

"Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors, concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods--in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations."

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

Links for Teachers

http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

In my student teaching, I found google images to be very helpful when teaching vocabulary or other abstract concepts.

http://www.wikipedia.org/

I know this one may arouse controversy, but I feel it is becoming more authoritative. Still, it's always a good idea to encourage kids to cross-reference, just as you would encourage them to do with any research.

http://www.feath.com/idea/quote.htm

I absolutely love sites like this one because I think sometimes it's great to have a thought-provoking quote to start off class. I like the idea of projecting this directly onto the screen via laptop at the beginning of class, perhaps as a way to stimulate writing or discussion, or both.

http://www.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/cgi-bin/anagram.cgi

This is just because I'm a nerd. No, seriously.. But anyway, anagrams fascinate me, and I'm guessing they would fascinate students as well.

http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/

No doubt many members of the UO Teach cohort have seen this, but it's worth re-posting. I have found some great handouts this way when in a pinch.

http://www.group-games.com/index-of-all-group-games

For my winter practicum I taught a scene writing and acting class. I found games like this to be a great way to get the troops motivated and lighten the mood so everyone felt relaxed enough to be in character, both while writing and while acting. I'm sure games like these could be of use in any subject area, if for nothing more than simply unifying the class into a fun-loving team of happy collaborative learners.

Hope these help! Enjoy! :D

Technology and Education

We live in very interesting times where we have access to some very impressive technological tools, and in approaching the field of education as a teacher it’s important, certainly, to decide where technology will fit into the classroom. My personal philosophy regarding technology is twofold. First of all, I absolutely do not want to see technology ever become the centerpiece of my curriculum or of the classroom environment. I like the idea of using technology as a tool to support the content, but only provided that it can be done in a way that isn’t distracting from the subject-area content, or alienating to students to whom technology is not their forte. Speaking of which, the second and most important part of my philosophy centers on listening to the student. Each student is going to have individual needs and wants regarding technology, and it’s important to teach to those needs as best as we can. Sure, we can study statistics that allow us to generally predict what to expect from certain demographics and so on, and we can talk about the digital divide and how these kids over here aren’t getting their fair share compared to those kids over there, but I think what is most important at the classroom level is just to listen to kids on an individual basis and try to help them out on that level with the tools that are available in that school.
One example of how I would like to apply my philosophy regarding technology in the classroom is to include technology in a KWL-type assessment I could use as one of my earliest activities toward the beginning of the year. I’d also like to use such an assessment to find out where the kids are regarding my subject area of language arts, but since technology will likely be incorporated in the form of blogs and such, I’d create a few prompts in the assessment to find where they are regarding their use of technology. That way I can know where the needs are when we do start using technology, which will most likely be right away. I especially like the idea of using google documents for assignments that are accessible to everyone, so I’d want to find out where I need to scaffold and assist and what I need to pay attention to in each individual kid. Again, for me, it all comes down to really listening to my students and letting them help me give them what they need by just listening.