My thoughts on Chapter 1

This reading has made me kind of open my eyes that technology is really being fully integrated into pretty much every level of education and not just the upper levels.  One reason for this is the reading uses the word revolution.  It sort of compares this “Knowledge Revolution to the Industrial Revolution in America.  The Industrial Revolution was a massive change that happened in American society and really changed almost every facet of life.  This Knowledge Revolution has not just started, it has been going on for a while and it will continue to keep getting bigger and bigger.  It seems that technology keeps replacing the old form and improving.  That is why there really is no end insight because people just keep continuing to improve it.  This reading sort of scares me a little because technology is really changing the way teachers teach and the way students learn.  Just by all of the stories that they mentioned in the beginning of chapter one, it really made me think that education today is  not just about students listening to a teacher and learning.  People do not even have to go to an actual classroom to get degrees.  They can just go online and take classes.  I took a summer class this summer where everything was online.  I never even had to leave my house to get five credits towards my education.  The only time I saw my teacher is when he posted a pod cast explaining how to do something.  It really wasn’t a bad experience at all.  Some of the stories even talked about students dropping out of school and still becoming successful.  In know way do I agree that students should drop out of school but, it is still amazing that you can be successful by using the technologies in front of you without having a high school diploma. 

            With this new thinking of a “Knowledge Revolution” happening right now I will try to keep up with the latest technologies.  I will try to integrate what kids are doing today in my teaching.  I feel that if you can not relate to your students it is very difficult for them to learn and respect you as an educator.  I do not want to use technology as a crutch in any way, but I feel that it can be helpful to keep my future students interested because they think technology is interesting.  I want to be a secondary science teacher and in science technology is very important.  That is why it is very important that I know what is going on in the wide world of technology that is constantly changing.  I then have to be creative enough in my classroom to actually get the lesson across to them.  The most important thing is that the students learn and if using technology will make it so that goal is more achievable then that is what I will need to incorporate as a future teacher, especially in this new “Knowledge Revolution.”