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Technology Issues
The first article I read was "Teachers and Technology: English with an Edge." I found this article very interesting because when I was in high school I did a very similar project with movie making. My senior year English class we had to make a movie, using windows movie maker, over a war book we read. We got into groups of three and it had to be about 10 minutes long, so it was very much alike with this project.

I also found Ms. Andie Brown had really good points with why she did projects like this with the students. She says, "The students, instead of limping their way to graduation with acute cases of senioritis, really get into the project. Even students that I wasn't sure had really grasped the concept of satire did great projects." I like how she is trying to help the students by making things more interesting and fun for them to actually get into school work. In my class I know English was never really that fun for me, but after doing our movie project it really changed my persepective on things.

I remember how excited I was to learn how to make movies because I wanted to continue to use those skills after graduation. I made videos for a few of my closest friends who moved away for college. Andie Brown also states, "I recall a young man who was amazingly intelligent but so bored with school that his grades were average and below." It really gives the kids something that they are involved in more with todays society which is technology and television. It helps them become motivated to want to do something. I still think it was a great project because it is something I will always know how to do that could come in handy at any time.

The second article I read was "TECHNOLOGY: Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms." In this article it talks about making classrooms more high-tech using computers in the classroom and have more kids hands on with them, starting with elementary schools. In my own, personal opinion I believe computers can be easier and more helpful to students but I don't believe they should start in elementary schools. I remember in elemetary schools we only used the computers in the library but that was just to learn basic things. When I got to middle school it was required for us 6th grade through 8th grade to take a computer application class. Taking these classes have really helped and advanced my skills with the computer which is very popular today.

Something that really caught my attention in the article was, "As an aside, I have always thought that schools paid too little attention to oral language development. When is the last time you saw a high school speech course? ." This was a surprise to me because in my high school and many others in my town area are required to have a speech class before you graduate. I think it is a good course because everyone should learn to speak publicly in front of others without technology involved. I do believe though that technology classes also be required because it is so advanced and common in our world today.

I do not think that children should learn at young ages to use technology for everything because in todays case, technology can almost be used for everything. In the quote,"In this model, every student at a grade level or in a particular school is given a laptop computer." Students should not learn to be dependent of computers or technology at young ages because there are other ways to learn things. Teachers also shouldn't be dependent of technology because students need to learn hands on with teachers and lessons from the teacher to make sure they are understanding. If the students sit with laptops in front of them in classes it is more as if they aren't getting taught and it is harder to learn.

I do believe technology should be a apart of learning but it shouldn't take over teaching the children also. Learning the basic skills of computers and have them in class rooms is very common through middle school and high school. In these grades you learn to use things for projects like powerpoint and word. These are some of the basic things that should be taught in certain computer classes.