So, I’m still reading in Web 2.0 and now we are looking at how alot of these tools are being used in the classroom. Specifically, I paid attention to the sections on social studies and geography because that is the subject matter that I will be teaching. I found these sections to offer sites and suggestions that fit the approach that I want to adopt in the classroom, but that would have taken me several years to actually enact. I am feeling more and more confident that I can hit the ground running and not have to slow down a bit.

The book also introduces the reader to the New Tech High model and the Lemon Grove school district model. These models partner with businesses and charitable organizations to develop schools and school systems that use technology as a large part of their curriculum, achieving as much as a 1:2 computer-to-student ratio. The efforts are admirable and the one weakness noted is the large expense necessary to maintain these systems. I worry about another weakness, though. The focus skews so heavily towards science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) that I have to wonder about the other educational pursuits. I helped set up computer labs at Battlefield HS, an information technology magnate school in Prince William County, VA. At this school, students can graduate from high school having earned professional graphics, programming, and network certifications. I remember noting while I was working on it that the school appeared to have more, or at least as many, computer labs as classrooms as well as a plethora of drafting and networking labs. Even at the time I thought that, while the school is impressive technologically, I wonder what the students are missing out on. I feel the need to quote Robin Williams’ character John Keating from Dead Poet’s Society. He said, “[w]e don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering - these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for.” I would hate for us to miss the forest for the trees here by focusing so much on the skills and technologies that we forget that education is as much about enriching lives as preparing them.