Weekly Article Topic 3

   Technology is the new and green way to do things. Doing homework on the internet helps save tons and tons of trees and well don't the vast majority of students spend their time on the computer and facebook so if their homework was also on the computer wouldn't they be more inclined to do it if it is right there? Well although on pen and paper this seems like a good idea the old way of doing things is just as good if not better. As they say, if it is not broke don't fix it. To me, doing assigmnents on pen and paper and then being graded right there is the best way for me to learn. With these blog assignments I am unsure on whether I am grasping the full concept and getting what I should be from posting these blogs. I prefer open discussions or something of the same nature.

    As a student in general I dislike it when teachers try to add too much technology into daily assignments for kids. For example, this year the school is now having online math homework on a program called Math XL. Almost every student I have spoken with who also has this is frustrated with this program and I feel that lower test scores are the effect. This homework, which takes a lot longer than should, has material that isn't relevent to what we are doing in the classroom. And if you incorrectly type something into a problem, or if they want it written differently than your teacher does, it is marked wrong and you must redo the ten part question until you get it right. So therefore if that question took twenty minutes and the next one is a multiple choice wouldn't you feel more inclined to guess to get it over with? So where is the learning there? I feel the blog posts are the same way. The student focuses more on just getting this done and over with because there is not much feedback. Especially when a student spends alot of time doing so when another student does not

   Also I feel there is not much extra education value from these blog posts. I receive all the information I need to fill out these blog posts from the classroom, so this is more of a did you listen kind of assignment rather than for further in depth information about a subject we learned, which I was expecting from the blog posts at first. Sure I really do enjoy being able to voice my opinion about topics we are discussing in class, but I need more. I enjoy when a blog topic asks a question that requires me to think deeper than usual and even ones where I do need to go and search more information about that subject. But there have so few blog posts like that, I feel that as a whole it is not doing much to help my learning. When it gets to that point, these blogs just feel like busy work. Just basic work given to us to finish every week to make sure we are earning our grade.

   In the end, even though the use of blogs has it's good intentions, it's not for me. Although I know that homework is supposed to be work and not very fun at times, doing homework with a purpose I can clearly see is something I do not mind doing. History is by far my favorite subject and something I will always be interested in and writing about history provides the opportunity to learn about something you had little or no knowledge about before. With these blog posts I wish to learn about a new topic or talk about something that goes more in depth about a topic we dicuss in class. It should continue the learning process outside of school.
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