*ambiance*

So, I had mentioned that I was at a concert this weekend, and I thought this was kind of cool. I know a lot of you might know this, but now instead of lighters during a slower song, a lot of people use cell phones. This is the whole crowd with their cell phones in the air (and a couple of lighters for those in the dark ages) - neat, eh?

long time...

So I haven't blogged in a long time... and I feel bad about it. The thing is, I haven't really had any inspiration... until this weekend. I was at a concert in Saskatoon, and as I was standing in the crowd, I had an eye-0pening experience. First of all, as people were walking around (myself included) they were text messaging, looking for people in the crowd. It was the most convenient way to get a hold of someone. Then, the concert starts and the lights are flashing, graphics going across the screen - all thanks to technology. Where would my life be without it? Where would society be?

Yesterday, I went to visit my uncle in the hospital. He's very sick with cancer, and isn't expected to make it through the week. But... he's been living with cancer for the past 3 years. He's gone on trips to Europe and Aruba, and enjoyed time with his family. Without the modern technology, he wouldn't have been able to do all of those things that he cherished so much. What would happen if technology was gone tomorrow? Do you think that we, as a society, could survive? I honestly don't think we could. Most of us couldn't grow the food we needed or function without a stove or a microwave.

Just some thoughts I had over the weekend...

My bro the whiz kid...

I've realized today just how often I talk about my brother, but oh well! I honestly think he's a technology whiz-kid!

Anyway, when I got home from school today he yelled, "Hey Lindz! Come check this out!" It was a flash he had made for his CPT class at Miller High School. He's been asked to enter it into a film animation competition within the Catholic school system. I would love to be able to do something like this... and I'm sure I could teach myself but he just has such a knack for it. I'm going to post the link to it. Tell me what you think, and if you would ever dream of doing something like this. Let me add that he created the whole flash by hand, including making the lips move. I thought it was pretty dang cool! Then again, I'm kinda biased because he's my little brother...

http://www.freewebs.com/masonrules01/myflashpolkarama.htm

Technology! :)

Not only has technology become imperative for us as classroom teachers, but I've been noticing it more and more in my own university classes this semester! It's like all of a sudden all of the profs in the faculty of education have jumped on the technology bandwagon. In 3 out of my 5 classes, we are blogging for marks (not that I mind, but still). This is giving me much-needed experience in something I've never done before.

For me, this poses a question. I realize that technology is the way of the future, but how long do you think it will be before almost all students are coming with a lap top to school instead of pen and paper? Do you think that soon it'll be more important for students to have 100 words per minute than neat and legible printing and handwriting? I'm not sure. If that's the case though, what does this mean for us as teachers? For all you early-elementary teachers, will we stop teaching it? Just a thought...

So... as I'm writing this, my brother walks into the room and asks, "Whatcha doin'?" I told him what I was writing about, and he told me about an article he just read from the Toronto Star (why my 15-year-old brother is reading the Toronto Star from Regina is beyond me, but whatever). Here's the link... it's quite interesting and kind of answers my questions that I posed above. Read it, nonetheless and tell me what you think!

http://www.buffalo.edu/news/pdf/December06/TorontoStarSrihariHandwriting.pdf

Later Gators,
Lindsey

Booooo-urns

This weekend sucks... just thought I'd let everyone know. Then again, it's only Saturday, so things could look up from here. Here's hoping!

Do you know what I forgot about? Homework... it just keeps piling up. After not being at the university for almost a year (April to January) you kind of forget, you know?! I know you all know what I'm talking about!

Neat!

During my pre-internship, my co-op teacher used podcasts in his classroom - I had no idea what they were, and I still don't. I said in my "Tech Task 1 - About Me" that I feel technologically literate, but as we continue to work in this class (even though there's only been 2 days of class) I've come to realize that there's so much that I still have to learn. It's kind of a relief actually - this will be one of those classes that I will actually find beneficial - YAY!

I would also like to respond to Megan Schlechter's blog. Some of you may not have read it, but basically what she said is that technology is super-fantastic, but it can be very expensive and not-so-practical for the average Joe. For example, having ring tones and games on your cell is lots of fun, but I'm far too cheap to purchase them. My brother asks me every time he borrows my phone why I haven't downloaded any games and the simple answer is that if I started, I wouldn't stop and my phone bill would be through the roof. As a student, that's just not practical - just saying. Tell me what you think!

There's a first time for everything!

So... this is my very first blog ever! I'm Lindsey, a 21-year-old Education student at the University of Regina. I intend for this to be fun... interesting... humourous. It should be all of the above. If you have any interesting/funny websites, please let me know and I'll add them ASAP. Thanks, y'all!