Week 1: Introduction

My name is Jennifer Hof. I am an English major at CSUN and interested in continuing to become a teacher (most likely at the high school level). I believe strongly in individual rights, freedom, and privacy as long as they do not impede the rights, freedom, and privacy of someone else. I believe that information should be free and easily exchanged, and thus feel that media technology should play a strong role in teaching. The age level of the students affects what level of technology should be used, so as to both consider what children are capable of understanding/utilizing and so as to not interfere with the rights of parents to determine what is and is not appropriate for their child. By the time a student reaches the high school level, however, they are close to legal adulthood and should be able to explore the world a little bit more freely in order to prepare them for the adult world.

Of course, using technology simply for the sake of using technology is both ineffective and aggravating. I haven't had too many occasions where teachers used technology where it was not appropriate, and none so major that it's made an impact I can recall now.

The most interesting thing would be the concept of using not just technology, but "social media" (Twitter, Facebook, etc) in the classroom!. One high school is doing just that, check out this short (2 minute) video about it: