Week 8 blog-Latest Tech Trends

Pick any latest tech trend (ebooks, augmented reality, cloud computing, social networking) and discuss how you feel about it in personal societal use/ educational use as a teacher.  This is your feeling about it.  DOn't go all research on this. :)

Cloud based computing is my favorite.  I am very active with equity and inclusion in my job and life and I find that cloud based computing really is one of those things that helps to level some of the playing field when it comes to technology access.  With Google Apps and Open Office available for free now all a user has to do is gain access to a computer and they are then able to use word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.  This is great because in the past it was virtually impossible because the software could sometimes be as expensive as a low end computer.

I also love that now we have many options that allow us to save our work to the cloud.  While as a teacher I am working very hard to help my students understand that this should be their first choice for saving, even over the USB drive because when you log in to the cloud and place your data there you are less likely to have the 'cloud' fail to work for you.  In the days when we used floppy disks, they would have formatting problems quite often and then USB drives tended to also get lost or simply left behind somewhere. With the cloud storage such as Dropbox.com or Google Drive you now really have no real excuse for not having your work if you saved it.

eBooks are still not my favorite but I keep trying to stay current with what is happening with them and watching the reactions of the students who are using them to see if they prefer them.  I have heard from both high school students and adults that they prefer the actual physical books where as I think the lower cost of having eBooks certainly makes it an option worth considering.

I have not gotten to the point that I like reading on my iPad vs. a regular book but maybe one day.  As I say, the jury is still out on that one. Another point that I agree with as it related to the eBooks is that it lightens the backpacks and if the books stay so much cheaper, I think as teachers we have to get over our discomfort and promote the new technology to our students who seem to at least not be repulsed by the idea of using eBooks.