Rose and thorns/today's discussion

What I really like about our class is that the topic is so broad and important that we can almost always find a way to link our everyday concerns to the discussion - and through many physical and virtual platforms. It gives a sense of flexibility and creativity but also requires great responsibility for everyone to actively contribute to the class's discussion. 

I enjoy the the talk with our guest speaker today a lot; we have talked about tech and ed from students' perspective but it's great to hear what teachers/educators have to say about the issue. At some points we mentioned how the use of technology has been socially driven: parents look for them and demand computers and high-tech tools and these are considered signs of modern/advanced education - Selwyn also made a point about this in Chapter 3. I guess my concern really was that Do we actually need technology at schools if they are so popular at home and in almost all other situations that the children are in? At places where technology is not so easily accessible, it makes sense that the children can get very excited that class activities involve the use of the fancy high-tech tools, whereas  kids who have been exposed to technology from early age might not benefit from that kind of psychological effect. I believe most of the activities and tasks we want to see our young children engaged in does not require the use of high-tech devices (which also means that they are much more beneficial and necessary for students at higher grades/college students when we are actually in control of how we use technology and what to get out of it). Therefore, unless we are so sure that computers and tablets can do something that the teachers can't do for the pre-schoolers and kindergarteners, the demand for technology use at schools merely is not very convincing to me. 

I also find it interesting when we talked about how parents overact to their children's ability to use high-tech devices - and I have seen it in other places other than the U.S as well!!!