My Thoughts on Articles and Video

The two articles, "Five Best Practices for the Flipped Classroom" by Andrew Miller (2012) and "Five Future Technologies That Will Shape Our Classroom" (2012) by Nick Grantham present very different ideas of the future in education. More so the video by Khan raises a lot of questions too and thoughts about how this new type of technological learning will effect children.

Perhaps it is because I myself am not one to like change (well I do like change of scenery, but change in school or in the workplace always drives me crazy even though I adapt). I think that the push to change the entire classroom into what students should be learning and completely changing the style of the classroom is a good start, but I am not sure if everything has been thought through about the realistic, not the idealistic impact of these changes to come.

Of the articles, I would most agree with Andrew Miller in that education reform "is a great first step in reframing the role of the teacher in the classroom" because I think that has been an issue, that teacher's are teaching the way they were taught and have been reluctant to change. I think that the atmosphere of "students sit still with your arms folded looking at and listening to the teacher and not saying a word" type of classroom was limiting, and this was recently looked at and a key issue in educational reformation. Additionally, I do not think that it is the best idea to show videos every class for every subject and assign videos for homework, because too many videos can shut anyone off and not necessarily teach. Depending on the school district and student situation, it is important to keep in mind, as Miller points out, that not everyone may have access to technologies to view a video. I think that rather than videos, engaging models are important and allow the teacher to serve as a guide and incorporate videos or other technologies into teaching. I also think that the model can change based on the students; what works for one district or classroom may not work for another. In Miller's reflection component, I agree that reflective activities should be built in because in the past teachers may have shown a video and not conducted a follow-up with the video, however it could be beneficial if used in the correct way.

The article Grantham wrote on future technologies was just bizarre. Having gone through a good portion of nursing courses and learning about the body just leaves me absolutely speechless with the biometrics approach. I cannot even begin to express my skepticism, and truly wonder if there has or will be any scientific evidence to prove that logic one day. As far as digital textbooks go, it drives me crazy that everyone wants to change everything over to digital. I like hardcopy, and I think that it is easy to flip through a textbook and flip between pages for reference on a topic rather than using a display where you see one, maybe two, pages at a time. I'm starting to think that we are relying on technology way too much and want to use it for too many aspects of everything in life. How bad will our eyesight become if all everyone does is stare at screens at school, home, the gym, cars, etc?

I think a key idea in educational reform is collaboration, and it seems that technology seems to be pushed to the core of collaboration. Businesses seem to collaborate via video conferences all around the world, and now there is a push for students to be doing this with their education? I can see pros and cons to this.

I am most uncomfortable with the idea that holographic displays may be in the future for education...while it seems like a fascinating idea, I just cannot think at what point I see there having to be a limit and a question of, how far do we actually go with technology? Do people think that entertaining forms or multiple forms of technology will make students more interested and apt to learn?

In conclusion, I also found the Khan video interesting and like the fact that he has realized that teachers "micromanage to test" because teachers have a curriculum but focus on making sure students understand what they need to for standardized testing, and teach to the test. For some reason, the educational powers that be (perhaps State & Federal Departments of Education) do not understand that in a sense, teaching to the test because of the test existing hinders other parts in a child's education. I also liked that Khan said that with technologies and this change in the teachers role, classrooms and students will finally be "liberated to communicate with each other". I think that this is important because especially in my generation, we were rarely allowed to communicate during class and if we did because we had a question or something, we would immediately be reprimanded.

Alas, change is approaching the educational field which we are all entering. We have to embrace the change, and make sure the right type of change is being made to benefit all students. It is a scary thought to think where and how our classrooms may be managed and what technologies and scientific information will be known in as little as 5-10 years. All we can do is wait and see!!