This article is about Dr. Adrian Guardia and the new technology produced by Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and others called "CourseSmart". The technology allows the teacher to view everything the student has done with the E-book. The teacher can see if the student has been taking notes, highlighting, and even how long he/she has been reading the book. The book is only in it's trial run at 8 universities but it's producers are hoping to soon make it world-wide. In our assignment, we must give the point of view from both a teacher and a student.
Teacher Point of View
As a teacher, I would be ecstatic. I would love to be able to see how much time my students are actually spending on his/her E-book. However, there is no way to know if he/she could be writing down notes on paper or in something else. I, as a student now, still use paper to take notes. Paper is my choice. Knowing this, there is no way I would be comfortable with giving out a grade for E-book learning. I would use a percentage of E-book information to grade a student along with another assignment but the E-book as a whole cannot be graded. There is only one way to know if a student has studied and taken notes and that is through tests, activities, and in class questions.
Student Point of View
As a student I would probably be a little irritated. Being made to spend a certain amount of time on any project or book is irritating. Some students preform faster than others and learn faster than others. That is fact. Who is to say as a student I wouldn't prefer to take notes on paper. I would want my teacher to collect all sorts of data available as proof of my studies, not just an E-book and online information. Every thing starts with pencil and paper.
Questions for Dr. Adrian Guardia:
What modifications can be made?
How do you know students are actually reading their E-books? They could just leave the page open.
Have any teachers disagreed with this development so far?
If so, what are the issues they had?
Do you think this would work on a grade school level?
What do you think students reaction will be to this type of monitoring?
How well is this program doing at other universities, specifically?
Questions for Students of Dr. Adrian Guardia:
Do you prefer paper notes or typing?
Do you feel that this program is helpful to you? If not, why?
How have your study habits changed with this type of program?
Do you even use the E-book?
In what ways would you modify the "CourseSmart"?
How has Dr. Guardia's class changed since the "CourseSmart" program?
Do you think the E-book has made you a more responsible student?
My comment to this article might go something like this....
"My name is Samantha Spence and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the Educatio program. I am taking EDM310 and was assigmned to write a post on my blog about your interesting article. As a student, I'm unsure about how I feel about this program. I think it is a good start to getting teachers more involved in their students study habits. I prefer hand-writing my notes to typing. They might make me old school but a prefer a pencil and paper from time to time. How would that change my grade in the E-book department? Never the less I hope this program takes off and finds itself to my future classroom. If you never try it, you can never be a true critic!"
I would really love to teach children. I don't care what grade, although I prefer it to be younger. Maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. Literature or English would be my preferred subject. My classroom will be colorful and fun. We will do different assignments every day and I will put my children in groups. Technology in my classroom is a must. The SmartBoards are going to be so useful and I'm so excited to work with them. I will let my class learn all about it and how to use it so they can do short projects in groups. I plan to use books to develop a lot of my assignments. With all this new technology, books have been forgotten and I want to teach my children about all the different stories that have been written. I will have them do several projects on grammar. It is the base of a literate adult and the most important stepping stone. We will use iMovie in my classroom, for sure. They can all make videos and we will all come together as a classroom to make one video. Getting children working together young will keep them from being shy in the future, being able to collaborate in their future job, and hopefully get them comfortable speaking in front of people. I'm so excited to get my classroom up and having fun.
