Thing Five

What does school 2.0 mean to you?

What does it mean for schools of the future?

In my opinion I do not believe in the whole school 2.0 hype; while I do think technology and the Internet can serve some good in a classroom I believe that realistically it is more of a hindrance. To begin with there is so much information stored on the Internet and you cannot monitor who is putting what information up so you have absolutely no way of knowing for sure if the information is reliable or not. I do understand most people cite themselves to give what they posted some sort of legitimacy but when it comes down to it people can lie about who they are to try to give what they write credibility; which means in the end you never know who is posting information on the Internet and a lot of times you have no way of knowing if a source is 100 percent accurate.

Secondly if you have your students using the Internet to look up information they don't really read the information most of the time they will google something and then use something like ctr + f to immediately find exactly what they are looking for so they do not actually read the article or document which means they are not learning to retain information.

Third using technology is distracting the attention span of a teenager or child is not very long and when your using the Internet or other technology in school it is extremely easy to become distracted.

Fourth it seems to me, in my opinion, that people of my generation and the generation younger than mine are quite stupid. And I believe that a lot of that has to do with the increasing reliance on technology. We tend to not do anything for ourselves anymore we just have everything handed to us. When using the internet to learn you just type in exactly what you want and you get that. But, when you do that it eliminates the whole process of reading and searching for what you want to learn about there is no trial and error and I believe that is one of the most important aspects of learning.

Fifth my number one biggest issue with technology in the matters of education would have to be handwriting. I believe being able to write, and write well, is extremely important. But, do to the Internet age there is little to no emphasis on handwriting. Alot of schools already have taken cursive writing out of the curriculum which is highly frustrating to me.

My other issue with technology sources does not necessarily go hand in hand with how it is used in schools but I feel like people, especially the younger generations, rely on technology too much. In the event that something catastrophic were to happen and the Internet, cell phones, etc. no longer functioned then most people would not be able to cope without the technology because they are so attached to it. I feel like it is more important for people to go back to their roots and learn how to live life without having a machine live it for you.

So to answer the second question what does this mean for schools of the future I truly believe that the reliance on technology in life as well as in school is going to ruin the education system. But, like I said that is just my opinion. Maybe throughout my journey with the 23 things project I may be persuaded to see the technology side of things which I really hope so because technology and the Internet age is here to stay so I do hope I can see the good in it.