Webinar/Carpe Diem vs. St. Mary's

That was an incredibly interesting Webinar and is the prompt for creative discussion.

I can say right off the bat, I am against the fully implemented Carpe Diem model.  High test scores are not the end-all-to-be-all.  There still needs to be social education, working in teams and in groups, personal interaction and personal communication.

In real life, we do actually have to interact with other real people.  We learn this skill by doing it.  Interacting with a computer all day would stifle that part of growth and learning.

I cannot imagine relegating a child to a cubicle for a major part of the day for the drill- and-kill.  Yes, drill-and-kill does have it's place because there are educational tidbits that need to be just plain memorized. However, not at the expense of personal interaction and learning.

I much prefer the St. Mary's method.  In real life, things work better when they are in balance.  Much like a diet, one cannot be healthy and lose weight by just eating less or eating one type of food or by just exercising.  To be successful in dieting, one must balance the food consumed with exercise.

The St. Mary's method seemed to have a balance of the 'old school' method of education in having the children interact in addition to using newer technology.  It seems that higher level thinking skills are being used and the information is not just learned, it is retained, synthesized and applied.

I am gradually integrating more and more technology into my classroom.  I have truly been uncomfortable with technology for two reasons:  one, I have been 'afraid' of it because I don't know much (but am learning) and two, it scares me because I don't fully trust it.

As I learn and explore more, I find I am getting more comfortable with the use of technology.  I use the Promethean everyday in my room, when I loved the old fashioned white-boards.  I integrate the use of online vocabulary storage and play, use Safari Montage for video clips, and the use of online project development.

As a teacher, I am limited as to what my school system offers in the way of technology.  I'd like to be able to download certain things we have learned in this class, but can because that function is blocked.  Our system is moving slowly toward technology.

I think it would be great for students to be able to download our student agenda to their phones; however, the agenda companies we use are 2 years away from this format and some teachers buck the idea of kids using their phones in class for fear of them texting.

Full technology integration has to be mastered from several perspectives:  Administration needs to be trained to train us, teachers need to be trained to train the kids, and all of the adults need to be onboard and fully trained on how the technology can be used.

Just dumping the devices or software on us won't help.  Like getting a kid to read a chapter, we need to have a purpose for learning it first to make it relevant and important to what we do.

I do think all teachers need to take a class like this one.  I have learned so much valuable information that I had no idea was out there.

A school-wide initiative should not be shallow scaled and devices bought just to have them.  To make full use to them and to benefit the students, the appropriate devices and software need to be fully studied and investigated first.  Only after teachers are sufficiently instructed on their use, purpose and how they can be used in classes to benefit student learning, should they be rolled into the classrooms for student use.