Education Through Technnology

Hi, my name is Mike Rothstein and I am the Chief Active Thinker and founder of Think Active!, an educational media company based here, in Belmont, CA.

I have spent the past 21 years working in the educational software business.  I started back in the day when software used to come on those big floppy things with a whole in the middle - which I'll bet some of you have never even seen…can I be that old?

I am looking forward to blogging about education and technology, both together and separately, and from time to time I will even write about my own products.

First, I'd like to tell you a little about my background.  When I was seven years old, I was diagnosed with Dyslexia and I graduated high school with a third grade reading level.  From an early age, I was labeled as "special", "slow", "dumb", etc.  That alone was difficult, but when you take the name calling followed with the frustrations of “NOT GETTING IT”, mine was a very sad and hurtful educational experience.

I can honestly say that I hated school.  I was the king of getting the thermometer just warm enough with water to fake being sick.  I remember having a meeting with my parents and guidance counselor my senior year of high school and hearing him tell us that I should start looking at vocational schools where I can learn a trade that I can use my hands.  I remember getting up, saying something that shocked my parents and walking out.  Not that there is anything wrong with working with your hands, it’s being told that you can’t do anything else that got to me.

I did end up going to college despite what my counselor thought of my abilities, and I did struggle my first semester - understandably so as having a 3rd grade reading ability was not the best way to start.  I discovered the Library of Congress for the Blind and had them tape my text books for me and though this, I was able to learn to raise my reading level to a more appropriate college level in just a few months.  That was my first example of technology in education and how it could be beneficial.  Once computers became more available for home use, I saw the opportunity to help all students with education.

Today, technology surrounds us.  The next time you are about to battle your child to put down their PS3, Wii or iPad, why don’t you sit down with them to understand what they are playing and turn it into a learning tool.  If their favorite game is Madden Football and they prefer this activity to, oh say, homework, you could learn the game and create a weekly lesson plan or "extra credit" homework around it, i.e have them write an article after each game giving game highlights, do arithmetic problems with the score, or perhaps show how to figured out stats.  Now you get to have your 'agenda"  too.  
I am looking forward to hearing some tactics that some of you use - please share with us here.

Until then, happy technology and happy learning!