In other words, I am thankful for the past two weeks of being forced to do everything on my computer because it prepared me a little more for the contents of this class. Even though I am familiar with things like Ctools from going to undergrad at U of M, I have always been one who prefers a planner and a notebook to learn with. I have learned that I can make the transition though, and there are lots of convenient and great ways that technology is an absolute gift to classrooms. I know that with the help of the Smart board that my mentor teacher has, she was able to take a task that I never thought could be made visual, and make it visible. She used it to connect a passage to the screen and then showed the students how to "Talk to the text" and make notes and connections all over the margins of the article.
I am 21 years old, and according to Shensky have lived in world with digital images all around me.
It is just amazing to me how over just one week of observing in the middle school and one week of classes, I have already noticed all of these changes and advances in technology in classroom. All I remember from high school is the overhead projector, and that was about as fancy as it got. After learning about all of these levels of cognition and methods of learning, I've began to see how truly valuable that technology is to young students who are learning.
Computer projectors were often useful in a college
classroom, but I think that my perspective is a little different because I just
came out of college. In many of my classes, my teacher still used a chalkboard
as the only visual aid to his lecturing, and often times I found myself paying
more interest in those kinds of classes. Granted, I am a college learner at
that point and not a ninth grader, so my learning motivation was maybe higher
than some high schoolers. I just think that a big risk with all of the
technology at any age is distracting the students from the content. I’d be
curious to hear other people’s opinion on this!
I wish that in class the conversation could have stayed away
from the debate of whether Facebook is appropriate for kids and more along the
topic of people’s experience with technology in the classroom. Just from my
experience with LCD projectors in college versus chalkboards in some instances,
I would have been way more curious to hear about other’s opinions on that. And
even people’s opinions who are older than me. I would have loved to hear what
they thought about their learning experiences several years ago without the
technology compared to their learning experiences thus far in the MAC program,
where electronic learning methods are all over the place. There are just so
many debates about Facebook and the content, and the appropriateness, I really
wish the conversation would have been veered towards the classroom and
Shensky’s observations from his experiences. If you are reading this, let me
know what you think J
Abby, I just want to comment on two aspects of your very thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you express your interest in one key question related to teaching with technology, to wit, whether the benefits derived from potentially deeper student engagement is worth the potential for computers to be a distraction. This is a really good question, and is one to which you should devote some research this year...see what you can observe. In addition, this would be an excellent topic to raise when we talk with the MAC alumni on August 3rd.
The other question you raise is--for me--both a pedagogical and an interpersonal one. You mention that the discussion got off onto Facebook and its appropriateness and perhaps stayed there longer than it ideally might have. That's a fair point, Abby...flashpoint issues have a way of arising quickly. In a similar spirit, I felt that I didn't guide the soda ban conversation in such a way as to avoid it becoming *about* the soda ban itself, rather than about the teaching opportunities that it brought to the fore. If nothing else, there's a lesson here about the importance of being precise as possible with questions to guide discussion.
Abby, I can, and will, speak to your question about where we have been and where we are now. Being an, ahem, "older" student I have seen how the world has changed. When I first started college, there was not really anything electronic. Computers took up entire rooms and in order to get, what we consider simple answers in today's world, you had to fill out computer cards and insert them into the computer. The first computer I ever saw was my junior year in high school. There is a video taps somewhere of a soccer game I played in as a young boy that required a huge recorder and an even bigger battery than lasted for 15 minutes...and I am not sure, but I think the dino's still wandered freely. But to get back to your question, I was amazed the first day of class when everyone had a computer out in front of them and was typing away. I had a pad of paper and a pencil and felt quite out of place. I have gotten over it a bit, but still, the pad of paper stays out as does the pencil. I am trying to read on my IPad, but that was a challenge until I discovered I could actually underline and annotate on the writings in the IPad...wow, when did that happen. All of my previous education had been done with a chalkboard, not even dry eraser and the occasional overheads. But what we did was copy copious notes down during class, my hand hurts just thinking about it...What I find interesting is some schools still have chalk boards and some have dry erase boards, I actually prefer the latter. At Scarlett, they have the coolest overhead projectors. Someone even knew the name of them, me, nope, not a clue, but they are cool. You can even plug a laptop into them and project whatever you want right up onto the screen...again, wow, when did that happen...VCR's were brand new when I started college, we actually had a betamax because that was the way of the future...either way does not matter, VCRs are everywhere and already obsolete, now it is CD and DVD, but wait, they are gone now it is streaming and digital movies...The world is changing quickly and it is hard to keep up...I feel so behind the rest of you guys it is not funny, but in the end, we need to learn how to use the tools that are available, even us old guys :)
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