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To much of a good thing?

3/19/2012

We have spent the last several weeks talking about how wonderful technology is and all the cool stuff you can do with it. I feel the question this leads us to is how much is to much?

I have a two year old and a six year old and I have spent a lot of time trying to keep them off of technology. (I should point that my six year old is watching TV right now because she is on spring brake and I needed to get this done). I am not saying that I feel they should have not contact with technology but I question how young it two young sometimes. My sister gave my daughter an iPod nano for her third birthday and I was in shock. A three year old does not need an iPod. I do have to say it came in handy for long car trips. At my sons daycare two on the kids bring in iPads and share with the other kids and now all my two year old wants is an iPad (and so do I but I feel that is different). Are to days kids loosing something because of all of the technological? I am sure that we have all read about kids that don't play out side because of video games.

How much is to much? Should there be some kind of guidelines for parents? What type of non-technology things should be saved? So many questions! What do you think?

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Professional Development

3/4/2012

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One thing we have touched on several times is the importance of professional development to keep up with the trends in instructional/educational technology and to receive training on the technology we have. This is a huge topic that we will only scratch the surfaces of in this blog post the the comments below. I did my masters thesis on aspects of quality technology professional development.

Effective technology professional development is mandated by of Federal law. The No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001 outlines school districts responsibilities for incorporating technology into education in Part D sections 2401 - 2404, Enhancing Education Through Technology. In section 2402, Purposes and Goals, there are several aspects of the legislation that apply directly to teacher professional development (U.S. Department of Education , 2004).

"SEC. 2402. PURPOSES AND GOALS.

(a) PURPOSES- The purposes of this part are the following:

(4) To promote initiatives that provide school teachers, principals, and administrators with the capacity to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction that are aligned with challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards, through such means as high-quality professional development programs."

"b) GOALS-

(1) PRIMARY GOAL- The primary goal of this part is to improve student academic achievement through the use of technology in elementary schools and secondary schools.

(2) ADDITIONAL GOALS- The additional goals of this part are the following:

(A) To assist every student in crossing the digital divide by ensuring that every student is technologically literate by the time the student finishes the eighth grade, regardless of the student's race, ethnicity, gender, family income, geographic location, or disability.

(B) To encourage the effective integration of technology resources and systems with teacher training and curriculum development to establish research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented as best practices by State educational agencies and local educational agencies. (U.S. Department of Education , 2004)"

In the research I did for my paper I feel that mentoring programs, immediate implementation , and the duration of the program are the three most influential aspects of a quality technology PD program. If you have time and want to read 31 pages about I will send you my paper

Find one article on instructional technology PD to share and let us know what you think are important qualities of a good instructional technology program are.

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To much of a good thing?

Professional Development

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