Rob Blackston: EDTECH Learning Log

This is my link to my Research Assignment. I chose iPad utilization in the classroom as a topic, because I feel that this is quickly becoming the current technology in the classroom. I know that a lot of educators have an issue making the leap to tablets or etext. Like many, I remember when the internet was introduced in the schools and the challenges that teachers and students faced. With all of those challenges, we still made the change and it has completely changed the game for education. The institution that I work for has implemented including an iPad into the tuition for every student. With that many iPads in every classroom, it is going present many challenges for the institution, faculty and student body. There is always a learning curve with new technology and that is also accompanied by many critics. That being said, I have noticed that the people who are open minded and embrace a change, find the most ways to utilize the iPad effectively.

When I started this assignment, I found that I was really afraid of it. I think that my fear stemmed from my lack of knowledge of RSS and then I had to create a video, teaching something that I wasn't comfortable with. After all of that fear and anxiety, I started using Feedly. I found that as I started exploring and utilizing Feedly, I quickly became addicted to it. I absolutely love the ability to customize and choose what I want to read, without having to wade through undesirable information. The ability to use RSS in my classroom, is a complete no brainer. In the field of surgery, technology and techniques are changing almost on a daily basis. I am incorporating it my class by having them start a Feedly account and start collecting subscriptions to different surgical sites. This will make it so they are staying current in the field. It also serves as tool for them to collect ideas for future research papers.