Technology and Pedagogy

This lesson is titled "Earthquakes" and is published on ScienceNetLinks.com.  It teaches middleschool students about plate tectonics and how they affect our earth's development over time.  This is an important and fundamental concept that every middle school student should learn, which is why I chose this lesson to explore.  Also this lesson incorporates authentic situations where students are required to collect data on occuring earthquakes and create a map.   
This lesson incorporates most of the New Jersey earth system standards under the strand of tectonics.  It covers the topics of plate tectonics, lithospheric plates, erosion and deposition, geologic events and the Ring of Fire through both teacher- centered and student-centered strategies.  The teacher-centered strategies include lectures on these specific topics and demonstrations on how to collect the data.  This lesson is mostly student-centered with their own research on earthquakes and the collection of earthquake citings and map creating. Most of the research uses electronic sources and the internet to complete the data collecting. 
Two standards that this lesson does not incorporate is the earth's magnetic field and the layers of Earth.  This could be adapted to the lesson by the teacher's explanation of earth's magnetic field and its play on earthquakes and a model of the layers of the earth and where earthquakes take place.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlEPB9e5Uod9dF9WNnhPSFNMSUF4Y1BSZE9zcmdjb1E&usp=sharing

Electronic Sources

Writing research papers is the hardest assessment for students.  I think about this as I procrastinate on writing my own research paper on paleontology, or fossils.  I’ll admit fossils are not as exciting as you would think.  Therefore it makes it even harder to get excited about writing a term paper on them.  However, thanks to the internet it has become easier to accomplish this task. 

Finding sources for a research paper is the hardest part since it is the starting point.  Over the years the process for this has changed dramatically.  The library used to be the place for this.  You would use the card catalogue to look up the book you need. Once you find it the hunt begins in the maze of books.  I visited the library with this intention but quickly failed when I could not even find the book in the system.  My failure is the result of always using internet sources throughout my education.  

Instead of going through this headache we have the convenience of electronic sources.  We are able to access journals, articles and even books with the convenience of our own computers at home. 

The tricky part is to recognize reliable sources.  With websites like Wikipedia and other Google searches, anyone can post material and publish it as a source.  As teachers we need to show students how to recognize these false sources compared with reliable ones.  Most libraries have links to electronic sources that are reliable.  This is a tool that we need to show our students and even give them websites that they should visit.   

History of Technology in Science

There is so much more to discover that the naked eye can't see.

Obsessive relationships with cellphones

As students we have always been told to turn off our cellphones completely and store them in our backpacks. However we have come to a point with modern cellphones where the rules have changed. Cellphones have exceeded the limitations of just simple telephones. They are miniature computers at our fingertips.  With this in mind we can use cellphones in the classroom to our advantage. 

Even if cellphones are not allowed in the classroom, students will disregard the rule and use their phones. Therefore, why not put them to use? Smartphones can access websites where learning activities can be used in the classroom. There are also applications that can be used for every subject and incorporated into lesson planning. 

Using cellphones in classrooms for learning activities can be taken advantage of; it is unrealistic to think otherwise. Especially in middle school and highschool students can easily text message, use other websites like Facebook or play games instead of doing  the activities. However this can be a learning opurtunity as well. Students should be taught the importance of paying attention in class and self control with cellphones. It seems people have become so obsessed with their cellular devices that they have a need to use them at least every minute. This is only a bad habit that teachers can help break. By giving students some trust and leniency with their cellphones, we can break the obsessive relationship they seem to have with this piece of technology. 

Technology Autobiography

The most influential communication technology to me has to be my smart phone.  Smart phones have definitely changed the way our society operates.  Almost any kind of gadget that you can think of has been put into one convenient device that we can keep in our pocket.  That was one quote that I remember from the video, "convenient." One of the main reasons technologies, like smart phones, have exploded is because they are convenient to our busy day to day routines.  In one minute you can receive a phone call, send an e-mail and research something on google.  My smart phone is the only reason I have been putting of buying a laptop, which is uncommon in a college student's life.  Therefore, my smartphone has helped me through my education.  When there is something I come across that I am unfamiliar with I have the ability to research it with only the need of my phone and fingertips.  I also can use my phone in classes by the use of my camera.  This was also mentioned in the video where a girl said she uses her phone for taking pictures for a project. I agree with this and have actually done this before.  I have taken pictures of notes, diagrams, and pictures that i can refer back to.

However there is a downside to modern phones like there is with any technology.  Because our society has become so used to communicating with each other through technology, we have forgotten what it means to be personal.  We no longer need to have a conversation face to face when we can just text or message each other.  This has affected our social and conversational skills.  Someone mentioned on the video that because they text so much they "text more than [they] talk".

Another influential technology has been the internet.  Whether you surf the web through your phone, laptop, or tablet it has reshaped the way we live.  The internet has changed the way we communicate, research, read books, watch movies, listen to music, be up to date with current events, do our homework, play games...the list can go on and on.  Pertaining to its influence on how we learn new information, it has brought information to us rather than having to go to the information.  Most children  do not even know what an encyclopedia is any more.  When it comes to learning new material nothing is impossible with the internet.

Like smartphones, the internet does have a negative side to it.  The internet has exposed us more than anything.  With websites like Facebook or myspace, we have entered a world where nothing is private. We have been stripped with even the idea of privacy. This can be a dangerous thing especially to young students in middle or high school.

The third most influential technology is the television.  I was surprised that this was not mentioned in the video since the television has become such a normal technology to have.  It is very rare that you walk into a home today and not find a room where the television is the main component. Media has exploded with the help of the tv, and media has shaped our society in America.  This however is not necessarily a good thing.  The television has been so influential on our lives that it has affected the way we think.  With obsessions on how our physical appearance is, we can blame the television. However with the television he have a source of information that makes absorbing new material easy.