1.My first recommendation would be that Kenwood provide students with a personal laptop or access to a personal laptop for use in school as well as at home. This would give our students who do not have computers the tools they need to research information and create documents for classes. At the very least, we need to have a computer lab available to our students in the morning and afternoon for our students who do not have computers. This would be much like having the cafeteria open for breakfast for our students who do not eat breakfast at home.

2. With their new laptops I think that BCPS needs to provide electronic copies of texts. This would eliminate the cost of replacing textbooks year after year and cut down on Baltimore County's carbon footprint or the need to remove outdated books from storage. This would also help eliminate the accumulation of dust on the old books and improve the air quality in our building.

3. Finally, I recommend that BCPS create a school network. Ok, I know we have one, but it seems that some technology should simple be available to us without a password or a cost. Students should have minimal access to the network so that file accessibility is easy and transparency exists for students to move from school to home.

I like the project based learning, possibly through a layered curriculum. This would great for both my French students and my theory of knowledge students. For Theory of Knowledge, I can introduce the topic through voice threads or some exciting presentation to get their attention. Then through brainstorming, create knowledge issues related to that subject and then divide the knowledge issues up within the class and have the students create their own project/presentation based on the brainstorming activity. We are on the language unit right now and I was thinking that PhotoStory would be a great way to present the knowledge issues.

I feel that since I started putting my lessons on PowerPoint I experiecened the Technology Penalty. It takes twice as long to create the lesson on the slides. It is difficult almost to impossible to find good images of the vocabualry words on the computer because it is tedious and we are blocked from image sites.

I have decided to suck-it-up! Next semester I anticipate that there will be a big pay-off becasue my lessons will be ready for class and I will simply need to adjust it for the students.

With experience, I now know how long it takes to create a lesson using PowerPoint and I plan according. Soemtimes I think about the old days when I had my hard copies of the vocabulary pictures and used them to practice the vocabulary. It worked--sometimes even better, but I don't I don't think the images were as exciting as the ones I have found on-line. At least that is what I am telling myself.

I think that the technology vision is there for Baltimore County, yet it may be just a glimmer. Kenwood is full of technology and people seem open to using it. Even so, the technology is not always easy and it is time consuming. On the elementary level,I know that at my son's school there are not LCD projectors in the classrooms or the mass use of laptop. It is on this level, in the elementary school, that I think technology needs to start. So the idea is there for more integration but I still beleive that money is a huge hurdle.

Using Voice Thread would be the peice of technology that would be great for French students. Each time a student uses it to comment either verbally or in written form, they are achieveing success and gaining confidence in their ability to speak the language. As the level of the language increases, so would the expectation of length of comments and participation with the program.

This would give immeditae feedback on student success in speaking and comprehension. If remediation needs to occur, programs and degree of difficulty can be adjusted accordingly.

Googledocs would be a great option for ToK. I woud have to set up an account for the class and give the students the information on how to set-up their account.
The students would have to input their email. I beleive that the students would be delighted with this option to submit their work.

To what extent are his observations accurate for your classroom?
Yes, this is accurate as far as my students are concerned in both the IB Program and the general French classes I teach. Students learn quickly if they are engaged and the classes are moving quickly. The students want to listen to music and read while taking note. In other words, they have their ipods in, look at text and still can tell you where they are in a reading. The IB students have laptops and they are great at doing many tasks at once--even if none of the tasks pertains to the topic discussed. They believe that they can multi-task but I am not convinced that they can do any of those tasks well or to any exent.

your school?
As far as the school is concerned, I think that Kenwood does a good job at making technology part of daily life. With SWIPE, edline and morning announcements through the computer,
students know where to find inforamtion yet there there is a still disconnect between those student that have access to technology and those that don't. Students will have cellphones and video games but they will not always have the internet at home. This makes it difficult to go fully digital for students and parents in a community such as Kenwood.

Do you have any concerns with his observations and conclusions about 21st century teachers, students, and learning?
My concerns for the 21st century and learning have to do with the aspect of fun, learning and expense. As noted in the reading, Prensky states that kids have grown up with Seseame Street where learning is fun and incidental. As learning continues and the child grows, learning, through school or life is not always fun. More than the learning, standardized tests and assessments are not fun. They fail to be fun and they often want specific answers that are may not be gained from creative digital learning. The main concern that I have with his observation on the digital native is that technology is expensive. The gap between students that have and students that have not is growing each year and the technology that schools have may only be a small percentage of what is available.