Blog #3 "The Machine is Us/ing Us"

I think the message Professor Wesch is trying to get across is that the use of technology works both ways. We use technology to make our lives easier and most of the time it does, but technology also forces us to adapt to technological changes in our environment. We cannot get away from technology, even if we wanted to. Technology is supposed to help us, but sometimes it hinders our ability to function. I, for one love technology WHEN it works. There have been many times when I have planned to take my students to the computer lab, only to find that the server was down and students could not access the internet, so they could not complete their web activity. I, of course, being ever so resourceful had them work on something else. There is nothing more frustrating than having a whole class of students complaining about how their computer doesn't work. Other times the website itself was down, so students could not complete their web activity and had to use google to find the answers, which took them twice as long to complete.
So, I can see why Professor Wesch titled the video what he did. Technology is the machine that we as a society use, but the machine (technology) uses us and we let it, becuase there is no way to stop it.

Blog #2 Handheld devices

After reading Chapters 5 in Smaldino and Courtney, talking to my mentor and doing my , own research, I realized in a perfect world with a limitless budget, I would purchase a PDA for every single student. There are so many benefits to using them; they can be used at site of instruction (desks), assist in data collection, help students keep track of grades and assignments, etc. The website I went to gave some great examples on how they could be used in all areas of study. It also gave suggestions for funding, such as offering payment plans for students, affordable leasing programs, education grants, and acquiring corporate sponsors. It is something that I plan on looking into when I become a librarian. But, alas, back to reality, since I do have a limited budget and cannot afford to purchase a PDA for every student , I decided that I could purchase play-aways (audio books) for students to check out, perhaps some kindles for teachers to check out and use in their classroom. There are several uses for kindles, such as previewing books, literature groups, family literacy groups, current events, etc. Kindles allow librarians to quickly preview new books so that they can make new purchases quickly. I would also look into purchasing several flip cameras and have students use them to record themselves giving a book talk; then playing their book talk on the computer for other students to listen to. These are just some things I would look into purchasing for my library.