I think this latest blog article sounds really good, but lacks depth.  While reading I saw numerous fancy words and ideas that sound good, but they all are very vague.  I don’t feel like this article really explains much, but instead tries to captivate the reader with sugarcoated points. With that being said I don’t think this article was a complete waste of time to read; I did actually like what it had to say about technology with regards to assessment and teaching.

I think that using technology in assessment is vital.  Our focus on standardized testing forces children to spend hours doing drills at their desk, and taking pencil and paper tests; I believe this not productive at all.  Children today are used to playing video games, watching television, or even playing on the computer.  Integrating technology into assessments, and taking standardized tests on specialized software would create a much more engaging environment for children, I believe it would also create a much more reliable outcome of student scores.  Software could be created for test taking that personalizes tests to individual students; what would it look like if we used a program like Siri to administer and evaluate standardized testing?  Using technology for assessment would also provide immediate feedback, which allows students to know how they did and what they got wrong right away.

I also liked how the section on teaching focused on how teachers will play a huge role in integrating technology with education.  I think the suggested actions at the end are quite sensible and really would help teachers integrate technology in a productive way.   I especially like the suggestion of using social networking platforms to help teachers learn and grow technology-wise throughout their entire career.  I believe that integrating technology is not a simple two-step process, and teacher will need to constantly evaluate and improve what they are doing, and how they are doing it.

I think that Mark Warschauer’s view on ways to increase and improve issues related to the digital age are very thoughtful, and could be very effective.  I like how he points out at the beginning of the essay the five digital differences that impact learning and teaching, and includes the issue of a gender gap.  I had never even thought about that, and I found it really interesting.  I think that the research he points out regarding computer usage between genders might be a little out of date though.  With the rise of Facebook I think that maybe boys and girls use the computer to interact socially more equally than in 2005, but more research should be done on that issue.

I also found the generation gap he talks about to be very interesting, and actually something I am experiencing this semester.  My biology professor is old enough to be my grandmother (her words), and does not use technology in her classroom at all.  Since middle school I have become accustomed to teachers at least using PowerPoint to give lessons, if not making even more use out of technology.  I find it really difficult to learn and study now without the use of this technology; I didn’t the realize extent of how much I gained from digital technology until it was taken away.

Warschauer’s explanation of why intense research projects work well, like Project Fresa, is very well thought out.  After reading this essay I think that projects like this make perfect sense.  I also really like idea of one-to-one laptop programs.  I can say from personal experience that having a laptop gives me a much higher opportunity to succeed in my classes.  I just wonder, from an economic standpoint how can we make one-to-one programs more accessible to more communities?  I can imagine that these programs are expensive, and do think they should be used more, but I can’t think of a good way to finance it.  I think that taxing more is a bad idea, but I wonder what other option there are?  I hope that more communities can find an answer to this question because I think that one-to-one programs could solve a lot of problems surrounding education and the digital media age.