Jocelyn's Blog

According to chapter one titled, Integrating Educational Technology into the Curriculum, teachers in today's technological world have to decide whether or not to include the digital world in their curriculum. Today's digital students are just like me and you. We like to listen to music while we work and text message our friends in class on our Sidekicks. The chapter expresses the need for educators to adapt their methods of teaching to the new "digital students" rather then teach based on the previous styles of learning. These new digital students learn based off multimedia and sound bites, rather than just learning based on text and linear thinking. The ARCS Motivation Model was deveoped in 1983 by John Keller to get students more motivated about learning so that their retention of the material becomes greater. There are four main areas that may account for differences in students success at retaining knowlege which are attention, relevance, challenge/confidence, and satisfaction/success. By using these newer technological advances, instructors are able to grasp more of the students' attention.Since my last posting, I have learned that I will definitely need to be considerate to the availability of computers and technology to each student. It will most likely depend on the location and area in which I decide to reside as to whether each student has the necassary resources to excel in today's "digital world". Some parents may not be as involved in their child's education therefore, the child may not have the same opportunity as others, to learn as much. I've also learned how to correctly format a disk and how to copy items from a desktop into a file from the Windows XP Practice Test.I would like to share with the class that my boyfriend is currently serving our country in Iraq, but fortunately gets a break to come home to me this week! I'm so excited and I just want to tell the world! LOL! Also, in Iraq, they have more advanced technology than most people think. I was actually suprised when he told me that Baghdad has a McDonalds!!! They also have very up-to-date computers and majority of the soliders actually complete their schooling online and recieve a degree in anything they wish to pursue. I'm so proud of him because he's younger than me and just recieved his B.S. degree in Criminal Justice.