Digital Learning Reimbursement 1 - Getting Started

I currently use my iPad for paperwork purposes such as putting together IEPs and collect student data.  Due to the fact that I do not feel comfortable sharing my iPad with my students, it has not been used for many educational purposes.

However, I had figured out a way of using it in math class.  There is an app called "InkPad" which is basically a drawing pad.  Instead of using whiteboards, which is what I had done for the entire year, I would bring over my iPad and show them how to do it on that app.  You can draw the numbers with your fingers and everything.  I found that I very much appreciated it.

The next part that I would like to reflect on revolve around several quotes I read a while ago:

"Students today depend upon paper too much. They don't know how to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves.  They can't clean a slate properly.  What will they do when they run out of paper?"      -Principals association 1815

"Students today depend upon store bought ink.  They don't know how to make their own."    - The rural American Teacher, 1929

"Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country."    - Federal Teacher, 1950

"Until technology is reliable and cheaper, teachers should stick to paper assignments and the classroom should not spill over onto computers."    - High School Journalism Class, 2008

"If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting."    - Stephen Covey

I understand and recognize that many people are hesitant to embrace technology.  However, if we keep doing what we're doing, then we keep getting what we have.  I don't know about you, but we need to change something up.

I am most flabbergasted by the 2008 quote.  That is a quote from 2008, not from 1998.  I could understand that argument if it were the year 1998 and computers were still frustratingly slow pieces of technology that not many understand, but in 2008, computers were faster.  There was Facebook, there was online blogs.  

We had gone past the point of Technology 1.0 (Which is defined as non-interactive reading of an online article) to Technology 2.0 (Which is defined as the time in which we became able to talk back to an article, to make comments on articles that we liked or didn't like and what we would say).

Are there flaws to technology?  Without a doubt there are flaws.  However, it is our job as educators to not only teach them literacy in reading, but online literacy as well.  To teach them not only social skills needed face to face, but social skills needed online.  To teach them  not only mathematics, but how mathematics makes these games they play or sites they use.  We must embrace technology for what it is: the greatest engagement tool out there.