Johnson

=Doug Johnson=

Doug Johnson is the director of media and technology for the Mankato public schools. He has worked as a media specialist in both a secondary setting and elementary setting. He has also worked as a K-8 media specialist for five years in Saudi Arabia and has been an adjunct professor in library media education for sixteen years. Johnson has written four books and many articles on schools, saving school libraries, and importance of technology in the classrooms. Johnson has a blog called [|The Blue Skunk Blog], where he posts articles, columns and workshop materials about education, technology, etc, and people are allowed to leave comments and discuss any other issues in education. Doug Johnson's [|website] is also very informative because he provides articles, his columns, handouts/presentations for educators, schools, and people. In this website he talks about his views and opinions in a funny yet in a comprehensive way for the everyday people.

He often speaks of the "net generation" and how students today do so many things with social networking and schools are trying to catch up. He talks about how students interact with each other through technology and have created a world of online social interactions. In his article [|Connections for Learning: Schools and the Educational use of Social Networking]he says, “Social networking and social media motivate students to learn independently, primarily outside of the school day. They construct their own learning tasks, activities, knowledge, and understanding." Many of his books are written as a guide for educators to understand the importance of teaching students’ ethics and morals when using technology and to show educators technology is not something to fear. Johnson is also an advocate for saving libraries because he believes that with the growing digitization, literary reading is declining among all age groups so Johnson wants to spread the word about importance of reading and saving libraries.

I agree with Johnson that students have a completely new way to interact with each other through programs like facebook and twitter. I think schools should be focusing more on how they can create an environment in which students can relate to one another in a way they are comfortable. For some students I think using something like web 2.0 can be the creative outlet they need to help them be successful. I think that Doug Johnson is correct in pointing out that schools need to keep pace with students as far as networking using technology. Students live outside of school time constantly surrounding themselves with new forms of social interaction. If schools can relate classroom academics to more familiar technology, students would enjoy this and it would capture their attention.

Created by: AK