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Technologically Illiterate Teachers

After reading the article "Is It Okay To Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?", I was baffled, to say the least. The analogy that a teacher who is technologically illiterate today can be compared to a teacher who was unable to read 30 years ago really enticed me to absorb as much technology as possible. I can surely remember sitting in high school and clearly knowing more than my teacher did (when it came to computers and whatnot), but I never thought to much about it. However, I can see how far technology is taking us and being unable to use it to its full potential would be like not having a mouth. I can foresee that technology is something that the everyday Joe should be familiar with, so why not the teachers who are educating are future leaders?
I know exactly what the article is talking about when it describes how people who are technologically illiterate play it off as coy or 'no big deal'. I can to some extent see how people would much rather just laugh it off than to try and learn or do something about it. However, when it come to teachers and school officials, I find it unacceptable. How can we make children want to learn if we are unwilling to ourselves? I just feel like, perhaps, teachers who are not willing to try and better themselves are only providing excuses for students to do the same.

International Blogging!

The first international classroom I found using blogs in the classroom would be a class from Australia. The teacher, Mrs. P, calls her site ALL STARS and it's for all her year 4 and 5 students (from what I can gather, it seems to be the equivalent to American middle school). This teacher uses her blog site to keep everyone informed on what is going on in the classroom. The new school year just started for them in January, so there isn't much up for this year. She has links set up for each student's personal blog and some interesting site to visit. The picture I have up is the only picture that showed some aspect of the classroom. I could not find a bio or a picture of the teacher. I could not even find out the name of the school, all I know is that they are located in Australia. Here is a link to their website http://allstars.edublogs.org/.

The other international classroom blog site I found was Mrs. Kelso's "The Almighty Bloggers", a classroom for 11 and 12 year olds located in Auckland, New Zealand. The first thing I noticed on this blog were the pictures posted of the class learning how to sail! (I have to admit that I am jealous!) There are a couple other posts containing information about various things and an interesting way to multiply. There, of course, if a list of the students and their blogs. There is also a link to some "related sites" but that's about all for this site. There was also no bio or information on the teacher. The picture I have is from the class learning how to sail, and a link to this blog is http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=71175.

Blogging in School!

When searching the internet for examples of schools who required their children to blog the first interesting site I came to was Mr. C's Class Blog. They are a fifth grade class from Noel Elementary School. The teacher uses the same blogger as we do for class. He puts up important information, such as vocabulary words and specific blogging assignments. He also has great pictures from different activites in class (probably for parents more than anything). He even adds a little bit about himself and what he did over the weekend. Then, of course, he has some "imortants links", like links to the school, diferent class links, and links to each one of the children's blogs. The picture I posted is one from his main website.

The next class I happen to find, interestingly enough, is another fifth grade class taught by Mr. Monson. This is for the class Nettleton Science, Technology, and Reading Magnet School. He does not use the same blogger we do, he uses blogmeister, however, the format is still easy to follow and navagate. The most noticable detail would be the class schedule, which is very detailed and I am sure that parents enjoy. He has posted some information about himself and how he got his start. There are classroom assignments listed and links to all of the student entries. There is also a long list of links that are related to either the school or the assignments or to the events going on. The picture I have is of Mr. Monson that he has posted in his "About Me" section.