Week 5

Going for the home stretch. Can't believe there is only one more week of class. I completed my wiki (finally). I learned a lot in this class over the past 5 weeks. There are several technologies that we use for socialization that can have practical applications in the classroom. The problem now becomes convincing the powers that be especially those who head schools in the inner cities, to allow students access to the technologies used outside of the classroom inside the classroom. School systems such as those in New York City ban students from bringing electronic devices such as cellphones and iPods into school as well as blocking school computers access to websites such as Facebook. In addition, there are teachers who tell students not to use Wikipedia when doing research papers. There is also the problem of schools not always having the money to upgrade their equipment.


The people who are in charge need to be shown that wikis, blogs, Facebook, Delicious, etc. are applications that our children and teachers should be learning how to use. Teachers and staff should receive training not only in using these technologies but how to teach students to use the technolgies safely and appropriately. However, too much of the focus especially under NCLB are test scores, teacher and administrator salaries and privatizing public education by opening more charter schools. By the time our children catch up, it may be too late.