Monday, October 4, 2010

C4T #2 Summary

The Next Tech Generation SEPTEMBER 11

Jeff Utecht describes the different technology generations in his blog post on September 11. He talks about Marc Prensky's Paper Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants and it was really interesting to me. A Digital Native is considered a person who was born after 1977 and a Digital Immigrant is considered someone who was born before 1977. In 1977 the first personal computer came out so that is why Prensky picks this date. It is definitely interesting to look at the different generations this way. I would be considered a Digital Native because I was born in 1990. Mr. Utecht goes on to discuss that technology can define generations and I also believe that is an interesting way to view generations and technology. Then he goes on to describe what he calls The Web Generation which is any person who was born after 1991. He explains that in this generation the people have never grown up without the web. These people rely on the web for almost anything and are efficient in using it. These people have always known what a website is. After describing the Web Generation, Mr. Utecht talks about the Mobile Generation which is any person that was born after 2007. The year 2007 is when the iPhone came out. He explains that the people of this generation will grow up asking their phones for directions or almost anything and will most likely use laptops over desktops. Jeff Utecht closes the blog with this statement "I think these separations of the generations around technology can help us better understand them in that aspect of culture and their life." I must say I have to agree with Mr. Utecht on this one. It puts into perspective what technology is like with the different generations.

Check this post out http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-next-tech-generations

The Reflections of Learning 2.010 SEPTEMBER 22

Mt. Utecht is describing his experience at the four day Learning 2.010 conference. This is Mr. Utecht's third Learning 2 conference he has pulled off and organized with less than 20 educators from the Shanghai. He explains how exhausting and time consuming it is to put together a conference. He says you don't realize how mentally drained you are until after the conference is over. Mr. Utecht enjoys this conference because it is trying to break the mold of traditional conferences. His team and him are trying to think about new ways to learn through the conference and and the conference structure. The conference was mostly about the teacher being a facilitator in the classroom, so they had no presenters, speakers, just facilitators. He says in order to be a part of this conference you needed to be flexible and willing to adapt to change. He says being this way is how some of the best learning occurs. I agree with him as well. I think if you are willing to be flexible and willing to adapt to the occasion you will be a better teacher and a better learner. When Mr. Utecht first did this conference in 2007, it was the first educational conference to fully incorporate the use of Twitter. Twitter is now blocked in China so no one was able to post updates about the conference. This made him have to think of other ways to get the community involved with the conference. A website was introduced that allows you to post 12 second video updates and they used conference channel to capture thoughts and give away prizes at the Learning 2 conference. Mr. Utecht believes that their inclusion of students during the conference is what will be most memorable. He believes that overall the conference was great. People seemed excited and engaged with the information. He was told many times that it was the best conference people have attended. All of the exhaustion was well worth it!

Check this post out http://www.thethinkingstick.com/refelctions-on-learning-2-010

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