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It seems that using more and more technology in the classroom is getting easier. I'm not saying that it was ever actually hard, it was just uncharted territory and that, at times, can be scary. The greatest thing about this grant opportunity is when planning my lesson's, I now consiously make the decision to use interactive technology over pencil and paper assessments and my students think that they are no longer getting "tested". Not only have I reduced paper waste and eliminated test anxiety to some extent, but I find it much easier to grade.

Week 5 assignments deserve a mixed review in my opinion. While I found the video to be repetitive and somewhat boring, I highly enjoyed the article titled, "21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?" by Judy Salpeter. The first point that I found interesting was when she quoted Chris Dede, professor of learning technologies at Harvard as saying, "To some degree the recommendations are not all that new, and that, in itself, is newsworthy. The fact that educators and business leaders keep returning to many of the same findings means we have a lot of confidence in them-that they're not part of a temporary fad" in refrence to what recommendations are being made by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. How simple is that concept, yet so meaningful for education? IT works, we know it works to intergrate technology into the school systems, so why then are so many of us hesitant.

Another quote that really impressed me comes from John Wilson. He believes that we are defining essential skills too narrowly..."A our nation focuses on the basics, it is noteworthy that the government, educators, and private industry are unified in underlining that 21st century skills must be part of today's basics". He continues, "literacy in the 21st century means more then basic reading, writing, and computation skills. As writer Alvin Toffler points out, 'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn". At the same time in history that we acknowledge this to be true, many schools are cutting any and all programs other the core academics due to financial issues. Because society, in general, is different and holds various expectations from its population then 20 years ago, it can be said that math, english, science and social studies are not the only important aspects of an education. As Toffler said, today's student need to know HOW to learn; they must understand the process of learning because technology is ever changing. Something that holds true today, can and will be different tomorrow, the next day or the day after that.

In closing, it would be of great advantage for any individual doubting the importance of more technology being intergrated into schools to read the following article. Those of you who do believe in the importance may also want to take a look as it offers insight and reasons to keep faith in the 21st century technology programs as well as the difficulties we must rise above.

Judy Salpeter's Article [] Week 5 Digital World: Teachers Today Video []