Thursday, February 14, 2013

Favorite Technologies


My every day life function the way in which it does with the aid of several technologies. As a student and a worker, I depend on the alarm clock in my cellphone to wake me when my need for sleep conflicts with my responsibilities. When awake I usually look to my computer to play music and update myself on the news.  It is nearly compulsive for me to open a computer and immediately open Huffington Post of BBC News.  I treasure my computer for these reasons, my iTunes I have 50 GB, all which I can honestly say I actually listen to and like.  All these song are arranged by complete albums of live shows with location and dates.  I should really back it all up actually.  
I live in Montclair about a fifteen minute drive from campus and I do not have a car.  I walk to work and I take a ten minute train ride to school.  I pay forty dollars a month for my Montclair train pass and rely heavily on this mode of transportation.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Nation Ed Tech Plan Puts Technology at the Heart of Education Reform
by: David Nagel
The National Educational Technology Plan released by United States Secretary, Arne Duncan, wishes to model our public educational system after a business through the serious implement of technology access to all teachers and students.  In a time of economic difficulty more creative and less expensive ways to improve schools should be sought rather than a super expensive plan than may not even be successful. While the plan seems to be quite scientific, standardized test have proven that a measurement of students in numbers and data does not include the look on their faces or that the errors may have been made on the verge of discovery.  The further away from human to human interaction our schools get, the more distance there will be between the students and actually understanding knowledge.  Discovery is not found on a computer. It is true that the world is at one’s finger tips vis the internet but we should not want our students and future scientists and leaders of the worlds to be making their discoveries while sitting down at a desk like a businessman in a suit.  This businessman is an adult, our students are children- their lives should be active not corporate.