Blog post #14

Teachers know if you have done the E-Reading describes a new technology called, CourseSmart. This technology is letting the teachers at A&M know if their students are reading their textbooks or not. CourseSmart also gives teachers the ability to know when students are skipping pages, failing to highlight, significant passages, not bothering to take notes, or simply not opening the book at all. This can be a good thing and bad for both teachers and students.

I think this technology could be really useful. As a teacher I would like to know if my students were actually reading the parts they are suppose to be reading. I also think it is very useful because you can also see who is trying and who isn’t. That is important to me because a child could be struggling and I might think they just didn’t do their reading but with this tool I can see it and know if a child is really struggling or just not reading what they are suppose too. As a student it makes me feel pressured to read everything because my teacher can see everything I am doing. I am the student that listens in class and makes my own notes and highlight important things but I am not the kind to go home and read the whole chapter. In certain situations though I think this is a great technology but for the students it is not. Some students it could really help and for others it could hurt.

Questions to ask the teacher:

1. Do I get graded on what I read and what I don’t read?
2. How much does this affect my grade if it is for a grade?
3. Do we still have to read even if we are studying a different way?

Questions to ask the students:

1. Does this program pressure to read?
2. Does this program help your grade?
3. Does this program help you or do you have another way of studying?

What Comment Would I Leave on this Article?

There is good and bad about this technology. I would like it as a teacher to see who is struggling and who just isn’t reading. The bad part about this is I feel it pressures a lot of students and I also feel like it change a lot of students studying habits because for like students that play sports they really don’t have time to read but as long as they pay attention in class and are studying another way that would be fine with me. So I think there is good and bad parts for this program.