New thinking that I have after class today!

We started out class today discussing if we were more like a technology enthusiast or a technology skeptic. I found myself right in the middle of the two groups. I can side with both sides for different reasons, but as we discussed in class, that is fine. The discussion leaders led us in a discussion about technology skeptics. We discussed a lot of the ways in which technology can fail or how it can take away from the person to person interaction. Someone brought up an example of how technologies change so fast and how they can be outdated and never used again once they are replaced. Such as a compass being replaced by a GPS. It is such an ever changing area, so this leads to teachers having to be very flexible and willng to learn and incorporate new technologies in the classroom. I don't think I will ever be strictly an entusiast because I still believe in the importance of face to face discussion and the thought that the teacher is there do help and be a positive role model in the students' lives with more than just academics. One other thing that we talked about that I think was important for my presentation is how to have more than just student to teacher discussion and have more discussion beween the students. We then went over how to create an interactive whiteboard lesson. I first need to find a WI Model Academic standard that I want to use for my lesson. I want to use the SMART exchange website to find ideas for my lesson because the website looks really creative with their lessons! I am excited to create my own interactive white board lesson!