Week+5+Reflections

One of the concerns that I had going in to this class was that it would be the same old speil that I had heard and read many time before. You know the part about how you have to work to make the technology transparent and figure out ways to get students to use technology without them realizing that they were using technology. While this course had not been like my worst fears, a lot of the material that we have covered in this course I have read before or hear in other classes. I was beginning to lose heart and think that this class woudl be like so many others. I am not in the habit of looking ahead in my course work, so imagine my surprise and pleasure when I looked at the video list for this week and found videos from three of, what I think, are some of the best and brightest minds in education theory and technology integration in education.

James Gee's work in game theory as it applies to education is way ahead of where the minds of most administrators is today. In my view, the average school administrator has no idea how Gee's ideas could radically improve their district and the learning of their students. Howard Gardner's piece on ethics in the digital age is so needed by students and adults today. He should be required reading/viewing for all students. The work that Sasha Barab is doing is amazing. As a former science teachers I am so fascinated by what he has been able to develop and I am hoping that schools acrosss the country begin to incorporate his Quest Atlantis project into their upper elementary and junior high science programs.

I am sorry if I ramble a bit but for the first time in a log time I feel like I have run across someone in education that really "gets it" when it comes to where education in general and educational technology in particular need to be going in the future.