Reflection to “Designing New Learning Environments to Support 21st Century Skills” by Bob Pearlman

          In order for the education system to enter the 21^st century, the school must teach 21^st century skills and the atmosphere of the school must change. Instead of the teacher having all of the control in the classroom the students should collaborate with each other and learn in a collaborative environment. I agree that students need to learn in this type of environment but how are all the schools in the U.S. going to change? I am observing now and my mentor teacher allows for group work but as I walk around to help, either the group is working individually within the group or one student is doing all the work and everyone else is copying. I tried to stop these behaviors and I tried to get the group to work together. Students are so trained now that I think it would be difficult to change their ways. I think it will be challenging but not impossible. I think individual teachers need to read articles like this one and change their ways in their classroom.

        Changing the environment of the school will be a little difficult for the teachers. The teachers must receive help from the administrators. I believe that schools with an inviting learning station will allow for exciting learners. The setups of the schools that were mentioned in this article were very interesting. I liked how the New Tech High had a floor plan with “collaboration zones” and “learning environments” (135). This floor plan just shows that the school was made for student learning and collaboration. These students at this school definitely will learn 21^st century skills.

        The world is changing so why aren’t schools changing? I love the traditional ways of schooling but I definitely agree that these ways are in the past and must change.

Reflection to "The Tech Commandments" by Adam S. Bellow

I believe that these tech commandments should be read by educators, administrators and everyone involved in the schooling system. Knowing these commandments can really help everyone see the importance of technology in the classroom and how to effectively use the technology. I agree that training is really important when new technology is added to the classroom. Training should definitely include ways for teachers to use the technology in an educational way. In some ways, teachers can use the Smartboard just like a whiteboard but if they only use it in this way then it is pointless to have. Teachers need to learn how to use the Smartboard so that it is used in an interactive way.

The internet is full of dangerous material but if students learn what sites are good and how to avoid the bad sites then everyone will be ok. Restricting a lot of sites in school is a little intense. I was observing a math class the other day and the class was doing logic puzzles. The class went through all the examples that the teacher had very quickly so the teacher decided to go online and find some more. The school blocked all the sites where the logic puzzles were. Why? This just shows that the blocking system is not that good. It sometimes blocks sites that are perfectly fine and educational.

In this society, collaborating is a very important skill to have. In schools students should collaborate so that they get more out of the learning process and so that they are prepared for the real world. I remember that in elementary school we had pen pals from another country. We wrote letters to each other and learned about each other’s culture. Now I think it would be so cool to have a pen pal because of all the different technology tools that can be used. Using Skype would be so cool because not only could I have heard about the culture but seen some of it.

All ten tech commandments are equally as important for all to know!