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**4 TED Talks**
media type="custom" key="23435562" This video was interesting to me because the women talks about boy's failing at school, a topic that I have never heard brought up before, and her solution, to bring gaming into education, is probably the opposite of what most people would think. When I watched this video, what I heard was an argument for play in the classroom. She mentions that kindergarten is the new second grade and that school is becoming more scholastic, which is loosing boys. She talks about how video games are complex and multilayered and full of human interactions and problem-solving and creativity,all of which are skills that are valued in today's workforce. I agree with her argument that we need to bring back ply and we need to bring it back in a way in which boys (and girls) of today recognize it, in the form of complex video games. Being a person who played scores of educational video games growing up, I can see the value a good, educational game can bring to a student. I think it would be a great idea to integrate video games into education for educational purposes especially as something for students to do at home, to reinforce lessons learned at school.

media type="custom" key="23435612" I chose this video because it regards a topic very close to my heart. My senior year of college, while I was doing my thesis on language acquisition, I heard of a newly conceptualized trait called grit. From there, I read all of Duckworth's research and conducted a study that became my Special Studies on the relationship between grit and the dimensions of perfectionism in a nonclinical sample. At school, I looked at grit from a clinical perspective, how it might contribute to or alleviate the symptoms of psychopathology. This video has me thinking about grit from an educator's perspective. Knowing what I do about grit, it makes perfect sense that the most successful students in underachieving schools would have high grit and I see the imperative of increasing grit in students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I would be excited to learn more about the growth mindset and how to teach it to students so that i could use that in my own classroom.

media type="custom" key="23435688" The ideas presented in this video are amazing. I have heard arguments before for using online-learning as a tool to reach more students who may otherwise be less engaged in the classroom, but I think something to this scale take it even further. This seems like a great way to give students the knowledge they need in order to be able to use their creativity. The best part about this format is that it is available to everyone around the world. What I love most about the program the woman describes is that it embodies great teaching strategies such as checking for understanding, constructive and timely feedback (really, instantaneous feedback), chunked material and differentiation (giving background knowledge to those who need it and providing more information for those who want it). With this model there is no reason for everyone who has digital access to also have access to an education. The trick is making it so everyone around the world has digital access. But as the researcher said, it is impossible to provide every student with a human tutor but it is not impossible to provide every student with a SmartPhone or a computer. What I found the most inspiring about this talk was at the end, when the researcher declared that this program could make education a fundamental human right, as it should be.

media type="custom" key="23435750" The message of this video went along with the belief that we must educate our students not for our past but for their future which may very well be a future we never see. Although this video never explicitly mentions technology I think that the message is about technology. The professor in the video talked about how we must teach our students to embrace their natural creativity by embracing their differences as well as their mistakes. As he said, nothing new comes about when no one is willing to make mistakes. This is easily applicable to technology. Thinking about technology is not the same type of thinking required for social studies or biology it is its own type of thinking and without creativity, technology can go no where. If technology is to continue to grow, we must allow children to maintain the creativity they bring with them into the classroom. We, as educators, must be careful not to squash students way of thinking or try to reshape them into college professors if they are meant to be dancers. In order for our society to grow and for technology to be created students need to be ready for the future, and what will prepare them for that is their own innovation.

**My Digital Autobiography**

 * In several paragraphs, please share your views and experiences about technology and computers, both in the classroom and in your experiences as a “user.” Be sure to include a discussion of your views on computers in the classroom. What role (if any) do you think computers should play in K-12 education? Why?

My experience with computers as a user began when I was very young. My father was a computer science major back when computers did not have screens so I grew up surrounded by computers. In my house there was a regular additions of out-of-date computers that my dad would bring home from work for us kids. We did not have internet the time I was living with my parents, but computers were in no short supply. My little brother and I would make it our job to go through every new computer arrival and customize it for ourselves as well as play any and all games we could on it. We had a plethora of educational computer games (the only kind my parents would let us play) which we played to exhaustion. Along with my amble exposure to computers at home, my school had several computer labs which my class started going to when I was in kindergarten. We learned basic skills in elementary school such as how to use word and appleworks (back in the day), how to make charts and graphs, and, most importantly how to type. My mom had made my older brother and sister go to summer school to learn typing skills, but by the time I was old enough to go, I was typing well enough that my mom said I did not have to go. I continued to use computers throughout high school both in class and outside of class. When I got to college, I bought my first ever up-to-date laptop (I had three early but all of them were very old by the time they were handed down to me). I still have this laptop to this day and it is my most valuable possession. Although not a day goes by that I am away form from my computer, I had an experience my senior year of college that opened my eyes to how computer dependent I and academic society are. In November of my senior year, my computer stopped working. Instead of turning on, it would display a black screen and beep repeatedly until it ran out of battery. The motherboard was fried, and without the disposable income to by another, I was computerless. I would bounce between computer labs and check-out laptops from the library (the catch being you had to return them in three hours and if you keep them over night, that meant they were due at 6am). What I realized was, I needed a computer to do any of my coursework, including the reading (which was, of course, online). Without a computer, I was crippled. Luckily, through some magic of modern mechanics, I was able to replace the motherboard of my computer late in my senior year and once again my computer and I are united, never to be separated again.

As a teacher, the idea of using computers was a romantic one, but an unrealistic one due to my teaching circumstances. To start with, the computers at my school were the same type of computers that I had used in middle school, ten years prior. They were so old that they could barely function online and much of the new software would not work at all. On top of that, the school had five labs four of which were located in classrooms. In order to use these computers, you would have to negotiate with the teacher of that class to switch rooms for the day. The other lab was always booked (not much of a surprise since it was the only open lab). And of course, none of the labs had enough computers in them for all students to use a computer at the same time. From my understanding, these are not unusual problems in schools. In fact, in watching Futurama the other day they make a joke about donated out-dated and nonfunctional technology to inner city middle schools.

Despite these drawbacks, I know a teacher who had a lab in her room (a language arts teacher) and she was able to use the computers with great success. She taught the students typing skills as well as how to use email. From there she was able to have the students type and email her their work. She also set up a webpage where students had access to online references and they could upload their work. It was also a great way for her to differentiate. When some students finished much faster than others, she would have the students who were done play games online that reinforced what she was teaching them. To the students, this was an incentive to finish the work and do a good job, to her it was a way for students to do drills that reinforce essentials of language arts that would otherwise be tedious and boring. Form seeing her use technology in the classroom, I think it would be a great tool.

From my experiences with computers both as a teacher and as a student, I think that they are an essential part of education in today's world. Thinking back to my own days as an elementary school student being taught explicitly how to use a computer I think that those skills I learned serve me to this day. Right now in fact I am typing without looking at the keyboard because of the hours I put in as a third grader doing alphabetpro. I learned how to navigate the internet and use applications that, had it not been for that direct instruction, I would have struggled with sometime down the road. Even though the technology I learned on is now obsolete (and sitting in a middle school classroom somewhere), the skills I learned also help me learn how to talk to computers and as the technology evolves it makes me better equipped to handle the changes that occur. Today, more than ever, people are using technology. If we do not teach our students the explicit skills they need when they are young, we are failing to set them up for success. Some people may argue that the new generations "digital native" status means that our students already know these skills and hence do not need to be taught them. I would disagree with this for two reasons. First off, although many students may be growing up with technology, many of our students do not digital access to learn these important skills. It is essential that all children develop these skills in order to participate in today's paperless world and the best way to ensure all children get that access and training is through incorporating it at school. Second off, just because a student is learning technology skills at home does not mean they are learning them fully or correctly. A hunt-and-peck typer may be able to get the job done, but that method will never be as effective as touch-typing. Additionally, while students may become very proficient user of today's technology without any assistance, our job as educators is to prepare them for the technology of tomorrow, not that of yesterday or today.

I believe that students, starting in elementary school, should be taught how to use technology. They should be taught all of the elements that we have been taught in this course so that they can become responsible consumers of technology. I think students should have a computer skills class, much in the same vein of having a life skills class, not as an elective but as a requirement. And again, I think this should start in kindergarten, so that all students, not just those who were fortunate enough to have a stream of computers coming into their house for the purposes of their own enjoyment, can feel a comfort and familiarity with computers that comes with growing up with them. Additionally, I think that computers and technology should be integrated into every subject from math to English to gym. Technology can be used to engage learners and differentiate teaching while reinforcing important life skills. I doubt that computers and technology are going to go away, so I think we need to start stepping up and teaching all of our kids how to use them to be successful.

Note: I talked mostly about computers here because that is the technology with which I am familiar with as both a user and an educator. I know very little about smartphones, SmartBoards, IPads, tablets, clickers, Nooks, Kindles, etc because I have never been a consumer of such products. I am sure though that they could be used effectively to help teach kids, I would just need to be shown how to do so.

Reflection on the Digital Driver's License
After completing the DDL (Digital Driver's License), I must say I did not find it terribly helpful. I completed all of the modules and took the quizzes until I got all the answers correct yet I did not learn anything. Part of the problem was that I was already familiar with the material from the presentations in class. However, I felt the need to read over the material anyway. I liked some of the multimedia aspects, such as the short videos, but despite being informative, the information they presented was not the information that we were tested on and it was information that I had previously learned.

While the activity would have been enjoyable and slightly informative if it had been kept to a few short videos that added depth to what we have learned before. However, the tests were very long and it quickly became tedious. The information would be very repetitive and then it would not be represented on the test. I felt like I wasted two and a half hours of my life.

**June 13th, 2013**
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**June 11th, 2013**
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I thought the video did a very effective job of portraying its message about the growing importance of technology in this world and how technologies are developing at rates never before seen in history. The use of statistics was very well done to give people an idea of what research is showing, for example the statistics about the computational abilities of computers. However, with these statistics the authors of the video also connected it back to what the average person knows to make this extraordinary data easier to digest. I thought this was very effective in making their message clear. The fast pace of the video and the music in the background relayed a sense of urgency which only proved to intensify the overall message that this advancement is happening right now. One part of the video that I did not understand was the focus on India and China. I am not sure about how this information was related to development in technology as the authors of the video did not directly link India and China to developing technology. It seemed to me that mentioning India and China was a low-ball attempt to appeal to xenophobia in the United States, which, in my mind, detracted from the value of the message in this video. Overall, I enjoyed the video and I think that it's message was important; I would have made any information about other countries more relevant or excluded it.