Floating on Cloud...ware

Floating on clouds is not longer just a fantasy! Cloudware is just amazing. We no longer have to store tons and tons of files on our computers; we can just store it on Cloudware. With Google offering it free, it makes it that more simple. From a teacher’s standpoint, this is so useful. I have seen teachers that I have worked with and that I have had that have tons and tons of files on their computers. Most of these files are power points, or videos that are needed to make the student’s learn as much as possible. However, I have seen teachers search for about three minutes for one file. This is time consuming. With Cloudware, you simply log onto an account and search for whatever it is that is needed. This cuts the amount of search, and gets to the lesson that much more quickly. With this type of technology, teachers now have a much easier job when it comes to keeping organized. I have been witness to many teachers being totally unorganized because their jobs are so demanding. Cloudware is simply awesome; we no longer have to feel “grounded” with our files. Most of us have to use USBs to transfer information from one computer to another, but when your files are stored online, this means that those files are accessible anywhere! As a future teacher, this would make me feel much less constricted when it came to showing presentations, I could present a lesson from anywhere!

"The World is Flat" book talk opinion

If you were to tell anyone today that the world is flat, they would look at you as if you were insane. However, that is just what Thomas Friedman says the world is. How is this possible? Technology. With the type of technology that we have today, our world has become almost minuscule. I found Friedman's idea of the world's evolution fascinating. From how the world went from large to medium, to small; to when people began traveling and colonizing, to companies spanning their business, and finally when individuals began connecting to one another and voicing his or her opinion.  Never have we been able to get our voice heard without having someone else do it for us. Now we can upload our opinion in the blink of an eye. We can view someone else’s opinion and make comments on it, instantly. I think this is truly amazing.

            Another thing that Friedman said that I found very interesting was the idea of “Green” and the concept being invented by the same people who don’t even believe in global warming. He says that we have said for so long that we are in a “Green Revolution.” Then he goes on to say that that is not so, because in a revolution, someone gets hurt. As of today, no one has gotten hurt by our “revolution.” I consider myself to be pretty eco-conscious, but to hear this, makes me want to do more for the earth. 

Technology Article

A Little Place Called the Internet

    How many of us have lost touch with someone wonderful, because sending a letter is too much of a hassle? Many of us have been there. However, with recent technology, talking to someone is really fast and easy! Many have had wonderful experiences with this new technology. One example is Amy Vaskez and Martina Scattolin. These two young women met in high school and quickly became the best of friends. However, Martina was a foreign exchange student from Italy that was only in the United States for one year. Time passed, they had lot of fun, but soon Martina had to go back to her own family that was waiting for her.

    This was a sad day for everyone. Not only was Amy’s best friend leaving, but Martina lived thousands of miles away!
“It wouldn’t have been so bad if she were moving just a few hours away, by car or something, but Martina lives about fifteen hours away by plane!” said Amy, sadly.

Both girls wanted to keep in touch and new that a traditional communication method, such as a phone call, would be much too expensive. That’s when the girls’ had a fabulous idea; they would use the Internet to communicate with each other!
    “Skype is such an amazing thing,” gushes Martina, “I love being able to talk to Amy, and all my other friends that I left in America. It feels like we don’t live that far apart because we can see each other when we talk!”

Their communication didn’t stop there however, “We love the ease of being able to use e-mail, we just type up a few words, send it, and it’s in Italy in the blink of an eye!” Amy explains, “Technology is amazing, it’s like all those thousands of miles don’t exist. The world has shrunk so much.”

Though the time difference, and their busy schedules don’t always result in constant  communication, they girls always find some time to talk for hours on end, and still remain the best of friends.

I'm a 90's kid

I was born before the internet. Plain and simple. I remember as a child walking into my elementary school classroom and along the wall were about four computers, not the sleep modern looking ones we have today, but that big bulky ones, that to us would now look like they should be put in a museum. Back then our idea of fun on the computer was playing Oregon Trail. Now, people sit on the computer for hours and hours going on chat sites, and playing online video games.

After having seen the videos "Shift Happens" and "Vision of Students Today," it makes me realize exactly how much the world has changed. Change is inevitable. It's funny, humans don't like change, yet every second of every minute of every day there is so much change around us. It's amazing to think that just about six or seven years ago Facebook, Myspace and Twitter didn't exist. These websites are now almost essential in everyday life. It's how we communicate.

As someone who wants to be a future educator, the tools available out there today are invaluable. Don't know the answer to a question that a child is asking you? Google it. You don't even have to think about it anymore. I'm not saying that we won't need to have to memorize things anymore, but with the vast knowledge available to us at our fingertips, who wants to? In the classroom this is amazingly obvious. I work with middle school students as a tutor, and for two days out of the week, I am the authority in the classroom. I have gotten up on the board and taught these students. The examples I use are ones that I know they know the answer to, For example, if they are in Pre-Algebra, I use a long division example. I want them to teach me, so I pretend I have no idea what I'm doing. On one of my very first attempts at this, I finished the lesson, and a little girl raises her hand, and in a clear, confident, and slightly condescending tone states "Did you know that you could have saved yourself all this trouble by looking this up on Google?" Aside from being irritated, I was also shocked, how could someone so young be so aware of what's out there? Evidently times have changed and are changing every moment. "Shift Happens" and Vision of Students Today" ring true.

Maybe one day, when I am a teacher, I can teach English to students in India, without having to even leave my living room. Though I'm sure it's happening today, I'm sure it will soon be the norm.