Reading Response Three

What are the three most important criticisms Don Tapscott makes of the Times article?
          1. That although the anecdotes that Matt Richel used are persuasive that are contradictory to the facts. 
          2. Matt Richel's article only tells one side of the story. 
          3. The article has no actual facts to back the claim that our generation is more or less distracted then previous generations. 


Do you agree with Mr Tapscott when he says we need to change “the relationship between student and teacher in the learning process”? Why or why not?


I definitely feel that the relationship  between teachers and students as well as the learning process needs to change and become up to date. At times I feel as if school is putting emphasis on 20th century skills that are no longer necessary in today's society. Students are just usually confined to listening and memorizing concepts and their is very little interactivity involved. Today's world is very interactive and students are used to working with and trying things for themselves instead of being shown what to do. That's why I think learning should be more interactive and give students discover some things on their own. 


Of the two articles, which one demonstrates a greater understanding of technology and your generation?  Justify your choice.


In terms, of technology in its role in education, I feel that the article by Mr. Tapscott is a lot more accurate. Mr. Tapscott understands how powerful of a learning tool technology could be.  He unlike Mr. Richel , Mr. Tapscott knows that technology gives students the chance to engage and interact with their learning whereas Mr.Richel views it as more of a distraction. However, I feel that in terms of teenagers use of free time online, Mr. Richel got it correctly as most teenagers do spend most of their time on Facebook, YouTube or playing video games. 

Digital Detox

For the most I agree with, Nicholas Carr when he says that "constant multitasking is associated with shallower thinking, weakened concentration, reduced creativity, and heightened stress." I can see how do too many things at once could easily lower the quality of the work you are doing. However, where I think Carr is wrong is when he purposes that we stop multitasking all together and just began focusing on one thing at time. I think that would be a bit too extreme and end being inefficient, however,a more realistic solution would be to go from focusing on a dozen things cut down to two or three. This way your focus is more concentrated but you are still being efficient. 


 I believe that Liz Daly's opinion is closest to mine, particularly when she says " People will overreach with new technology, a few destructively, but the majority will learn when the task-switching becomes stressful instead of exciting." I think is the the most accurate perspective of the effect to switching between tasks and multitasking because although a few people will multi task to the point where the work is greatly affected negatively most will multi task in moderation and the work will not be affected  greatly. I also agree with that the fact that distractions have always been present and "wasting time YouTube-video-hopping is no worse than wasting time channel-surfing with the remote."


Personally, I do not think I would ever consider a digital detox, mainly because I don't see the benefits and I wouldn't be able too. I don't see how don't using technology could benefit my life seeing as how it is how a gain most of my technology. 

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction Response

Vishal explains that "on Youtube you can get a whole story in 6 minutes. A book takes too long". Although, I'm not constantly online like Vishal, I feel that our attention spans are similar. When I was younger I was able to spend hours reading a book whereas now I could barely read 20 pages without getting bored. However, the same thing applies to my online habits, personally I cant spend more the 10 minutes on Facebook without getting bored either. I feel that the cause of the shortening of my attention span, and Vishal's as well,  is the ability to do many things at once which technology allows us to do.  Rarely, I'm I doing one thing at time when I'm on the computer just like Vishal, "I’m doing Facebook, YouTube, having a conversation or two with a friend, listening to music at the same time. I’m doing a million things at once." Although, my marks have not been negatively affected by short attention span yet, I feel like its only a matter of time before it does and I can definitely see how a short attention span can lower the marks of other students.

In the article, Mr.Reilly says that "... technology amplifies whoever you are." In my opinion, technology doesn't amplify a person personality but creates a platform to be a completely different person. The ability to stay anonymous online gives people the chance whatever they want without any major consequences. This gives people the opportunity to say things they normally wouldn't say if their identity was known. This allows everyone to be more outgoing and loud then they really are. 

The article discusses a study that concluded that engaging in a highly stimulating actives such as playing video games affects your sleep habits and ability to retain information. Although, I'm sure that  playing video games can affect sleep patterns because the stimulation keeps you excited and eager for more. However, I believe that the difficulty retaining  information stems from the lack of sleep not the stimulation of the videos games. Personally, I think I retain information better while stimulated and I often listen to music or pace while studying. 

I believe that technology should definitely be continued to be used in classrooms because by putting technology into classes you will be able to grasp the very little attention they have. Mr. Eaton, a Latin teacher, said " When rock ’n’ roll came about, we didn’t start using it in classrooms like we’re doing with technology." I think the reason its a good idea to implement technology over other teenage hobbies like rock n roll is that the ability to use technology is key in most careers today, so if you can couple computer literacy with other subject, your not only engaging them in a lesson you are also teaching them skills vital in the workplace. 

The article has an overall focus on the way students waste time while using technology, they also do spend time learning things online as well. Technology allows students to learn and research faster then ever and I believe that a lot of students  do take advantage of that.  All in all, however the author did have a good grasp of technology use among teens. 

Summary of Interview

On Thursday, we met with Ms.Pettie and she told us that she wanted to try to incorporate technology into her classes mainly her ESLD class. We asked her what her ESLD class was working currently and she told us that her class was currently reading Romeo and Juliet. We then told her that we would brainstorm some ideas and meet with her again on Tuesday.

Placement Update

Last week, the students who were working with geography teachers meet with Mr. Carpenter to learn what he wanted us to do. Basically, he explained to us that he wanted to incorporate technology into the grade nine ISP which is about the pull and push factors that push/pull someone to immigrate to Canada. As a group we decided the best technology to use would be Google Earth, Gapminder and wolframalpha. We split into smaller group to try to incorporate each technology. Shayan and I are working on wolframalpha.

This week, Shayan and I will continue finding ways that the students can use wolframalpha to extract data. After we are finished we will but our ideas with the other groups and make a final product for the ISP.

Placement Preferences

1. Personally, I feel that I would be best at teaching students and teachers to use technology and software because I feel that many of my strengths would be displayed in that task. Firstly, I am very sociable thus I would easily be able to interact comfortable with and teachers. Secondly, I am very good at explaining things to people in the most simple terms so that would help me teach the students and teachers very efficiently. Thirdly, I am very patient and would not get irritated if  the teaching  process took longer than I would expect. 


I would also be comfortable learning new software as it already sort of a hobby of mind. I believe that I am quick learner and I really enjoy learning new things. 


I would not be comfortable in finding online resources or designing and develop a web site as I am not the kind of person how enjoys doing research and thus not good it and also I am not creative in the design sense in the slightest. 


2. -Creativity 8: I believe that I am very good at coming up with new ideas and coming up with ways to make them work.

-Responsibility 7: I am responsible most of the time however, I need a few reminders some times. 

-Web Design 6: I have no artistic ability and have never made a website. That being said I could probably learn how to fairly quickly. 

-Developing action plans 9: I am able to make detailed plans to get my ideas out there.

-Teach other people 10: I have lots of experience teaching people as I have taught my brother everything he know :). And I really enjoy the feeling of teaching people new things. 

-Meeting Deadlines 9: I complete almost all assignments on time unless there is an exceptional reason. 


3. I have no problem leading a group, it is in fact a role I assume most of the time. 


4. I would prefer to work with a partner or small group because i believe that is the most efficient way to work as the workload is split more evenly. 


5. I would be most comfortable working in English, Media, Geography and Biology. I would not be comfortable working in History because I am not interested in the course. 

Enrinching Technology Conclusion

After going over my idea and looking over some of the comments my peers, I think I need to alter my idea a bit to make it more effective. Firstly, I need to narrow down on the amount of technology I am trying to incorporated at once. I think I should focus on Google docs and Prezi as they are the most effective in my opinion. Next I need to pick a specific course to introduce these tools into; I think a course like SAP ( Intro to psychology, anthropology and sociology) because it had lots of group related projects.

To incorporate these technology, first we would have to teach teachers in the social science department who might teach the course about the technology. This way the could comfortably introduce the technology into their classes.Also the teachers should be encouraged to really get their students excited about using the technology. I believe once students get to using the technology the will clearly see the benifits for theirselves.