As a a future educator, I was interested to hear what Campbell had to say; although, upon hearing his ideas I found that I was not compelled by his argument, more so in the “Digital Facelifts” video. I found that Campbell was very enthused with the idea of transforming technology, but somewhat laughed in the face of the consequences that could arise in doing so. I suppose I would be one of the people that questions the “bag of gold.” I find that I question it because I believe the consequences of completely changing the internet will have more consequences that benefits. I would be willing to listen and have discussion about it and would not completely shun it, but I am not convinced of his argument. I may have overreached Campbell’s idea, and I could find somethings that I would give more though to, but I felt like Campbell wanted an immense change in technology that would completely change it as we know it today.

Campbell discusses that technology has just been a “digital facelift” in which we have not used technology to its full potential. For just a “facelift” I find that technology is very good, and I like where it is now. Sure, I wouldn’t mind the next iPad or iPod coming out, but I am not fond of the idea of the microchip and the major technological change it would bring. I don’t believe we have even fully figured out how to use the technology we have today, let alone change it completely. As a future educator I will obviously incorporate technology into my classroom, but it will certainly not be entirely digitized. Campbell claims that it would be a good thing if every book, journal, etc was digitized, which I disagree with. I don’t like the idea of a future generation that doesn’t have the pleasure of holding a paperback novel, or the idea that one day when I pull out a book of the shelf it will be a foreign antique object to my students. I also don’t like the idea of a world where everything is done on the internet. I do appreciate the idea of sharing things on the internet, where educators, business people, and everyday people alike can get information instantly. I know that the internet is a great source of information, but I believe technology needs to be more of a secondary source to actual face-to-face conversation of ideas when it comes to the classroom. Everyday you can view commercials for matchmaker.com and similar networks, where people met their spouse over the internet. I am not comfortable with the idea of most day-to-day contact being online, where we would be in contact with avatars, and in person contact skills being thrown out in place of the comfort of a computer screen.

I did like Campbell’s argument of making Blackboard more personalized. I want to teach high school, and I would be open to hearing more about this, and perhaps implementing this one day, but Campbell only speaks about higher education. Public schools have a lot of issues right now that need to be addressed, and I wonder if by allowing high school students to do this they would be more inclined to participate.  This could make students more interested in learning again, and,  in turn allow more students to make it to the collegiate level. I absolutely agree that educators need to find a way to allow students to use their imaginations again rather that just having them memorize facts; but, I believe that this problem was created by acts such as “No Child Left Behind” which forces this upon educators. Education surely needs to be revamped, but I’m not sure that this is going to do it. I felt as though Campbell was implying that this was THE way to get students more involved and have us express our ideas. I have been in classes where it was basically all online and classes that are all in the classroom, but require discussion amongst students. Personally, I found it more engaging to have students discuss in the classroom, and I did not enjoy the class that was all online-based. I appreciate the idea of implmenting the blog system used in DS106 into other classrooms, but I am not in support of a huge technological transformation, in which the the primary source of communication is through the internet. I see the positive impact UMWBlogs has had and I believe that schools can implement similar programs, but as one source. I do not want our generation or any generation after to learn only through the internet. I find it extremely beneficial to still have communication skills and writing skills outside of the computer screen and keyboard. I understand that we are in a technological age and it is impossible not to incorporate technology in our everyday lives, including in the classroom, but I don’t believe that we need to take it to extreme levels where, ultimately, everything is online based.