edci 320 chapter 1 response

chapter 1
        While I was reading through chapter 1, I thought it was very interesting to see how difficult it is to define educational technology. Part of what makes it so difficult is that it encompasses a wide variety of things.
Another problem is that you cant talk about specific pieces of technology in the definition because it is constantly changing. I liked the way they said that a correct definition has to include both applying tools for educational purposes and the tools and materials used. another thing that I learned while reading was a little bit of the history on computers. I thought it was really cool to learn that even before they had microcomputers, they intergrated the ones that they had into the classroom. I would like to know how effective they were and what all they could do with them. The third thing that I learned was about the NETS. I assumed that there was standards put on how much the students knew about technology, but I thought that it was pretty interesting that there were technology standards for teachers and even administrators. I think that they are probably a good thing, as long as they dont expect too much from them.
         After reading this chapter, there were a couple of things that I could take from it and use in my own classroom. One thing that the book talked about was the "glitz factor". They described this as getting excited over the latest and coolest technology without even really thinking about how effective it may or may not be. Smething that I'll take into my classroom is that I will remember that sometimes the older technology is the most effective. The other thing that I can take from it is that you can have your students use technology so that the technology does the lower level thinking skills, like spell check, for them, and then they will have more of a chance to do the higher level thinking skills.
        One question that I Had after reading the chapter was what is the most effective way to accomadate students that don't have any technology, and can't neccessarily spend time after or before school on the computers.