Ron Bowlan AKTVLC Blogpost 1

Friday, June 24, 2016

Blog Post 1 AKTVLC

     The article, Study Suggests Benefits of Social Media in the Classroom, at http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/study-suggests-social-media-has-place-in-classrooms.shtml piqued my interest as to how far our society, and our students, have advanced in technology over the last few decades. I graduated high school in 1981, which is quite a while ago. However, when one considers technology advancement since 1981, it's nothing but amazing. The article states that over 70 percent of organizations use some form of social media for collaboration.

     Throughout my school years, including high school, and some college, computers were seldom used by students. Sure, there were a few computers on campus for office personnel, but students never had access to them. I completed my junior and senior year term papers on an IBM typewriter, pock marked with corrections on virtually every page.

     Today, I am an elementary teacher. My students have well-established groups throughout social media. The article asserts that students that studied via these social groups in college were more engaged, better prepared, and learned more than their peers who went out on their own. To me, that's significant enough to more than pique my interest in advancing my technological prowess. I joined this group for the conference in Kodiak to move forward in adding technology to my classroom that makes a difference. I believe I owe it to my students to prepare them for the world they will face, not the world I experienced throughout my educational journey.

Recent followings:
Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher.com and Chris Stegall, www.chris8466.wordpress.com
Chris has been a wealth of knowledge in my journey to upgrade my classroom to a technologically sound environment for my students to learn.