Week 3 Readings and Videos

This week I really enjoyed the Edutopia.com videos of the digital youth portraits.  Louis used the computer for email, social networking, programming, creating, and household management.  As a student of immigrant parents he helped his family pay bills with the computer.  He also used his computer knowledge to educate younger students with robotics, showing a clear understanding of the task, by teaching it to others.  As I watched this video I wondered how many of my students used computers to help their families.  Many students have such a second sense to computers that their parents may not have.  I wondered how I could tap into my students’ knowledge to help them benefit their families. Louis participated in a program after school called Tech Wizards, which focused on STEM based projects.  Technology is used as a hook for the program.  Lisa Conroy, Director of the Tech Wizards says “In the beginning we just try to motivate, if all things go together as they should, pretty soon we are just trying to get out of the way.”   Isn’t this what all teachers want? Self-motivated students, engaged in their own learning.