Post #1

So, carrying on with Monday's tradition of quality "blogging", here's my first "official" post for EME 2040......

Chapter 1:

So, what did I learn from Chapter 1 of our text? What stunning revelations unfolded before my astonished eyes as I "skimmed" Teachers Discovering Computer's introductory pages?

Well, to be succinct, not a whole heck of a lot. The text seems to be carrying on with what is largely an archaic view of technology as it relates to pedagogy. These classes seem to be stuck in the assumption that the students that they minister to have somehow, inexplicably, managed to abstain from the use of software thus far in their lives. Here's the problem with that assumption: the "digital students" that the text complains are befuddling America's teachers have, indeed, been around for quite some time. In fact, they've become the young educators in the teacher prep programs that the text itself caters to!

Seriously, are there that many people in the Freshman/Sophomore class at FSU that haven't had significant experience with the basic operational skills that Windows requires? Have they been writing every paper they've done for school for the last 10 years longhand, abstaining from Word? Hasn't the current generation of would-be teachers been inundiated by the vagaries of the internet for the majority of their lives?

Why are these classes focusing so much on the practical aspects of technology training? Shouldn't teacher preperatory programs now be transitioning to theoretical concepts of integration of technology into curriculum? I'd contend that the majority of the students in EME2040 are prepared to teach the digital students of today because they are, in fact, part of the generation.