In a day and age where test scores drive the curriculum, educators must carefully balance the amount of time spent on true teachable moments and what the data dictates for classroom instruction. Is there a way to incorporate the manner and medium in which our students best learn, through technology, or should educators practice skill and drill techniques that worked in the past?
More often than not, I hear, "When I was in school, we ....." Those 35 and older can fill in the blank. I agree that children are children, but today's children have grown up with technology. Even in a low-socioeconomic setting, children have cell phones, PSP's, MP3 players, computers and Ipods. It is our responsibility, as educatoors, to stay current with technology and how we can best utilize it in the classroom.
Personally, in my experience with middle grade students, getting children 'hooked' has been most difficult. I know that if I had been more tech savvy, my lessons and instruction would have been more engaging and appealing to my students. Social networking offers endless opportunties for the use of technology and what the kids view as 'fun' learning.
We know that we get better results when we are able to tap into what our students already know and are able to build from there. As a general education teacher, it has been difficult to meet the needs of all my diverse learners. But, what if we were able to utilize the tech tools available and allow students to show us, rather than attempt to exise what they know?
What if students were allowed to use Flickr as a way of sharing what they know about particular places they have visited or as a medium for sharing their personal narrative that are directly linked to the GPS? Or, what if they were allowed access to Delicious for research in their Reading class? What if we wanted to be eco-friendly, tech savvy and encourage healthy competition among our readers by allowing them to use LibraryThing as a medium for recording and responding to texts they have read? It all sounds great, right?
One of the biggest problems that I have experienced while trying to incorporate new technology as I become exposed and attempt to apply within my classroom is district and IT policies. A couple of weeks ago, I showed some of the Wikis that I had come across to my students. I told them of my plans to create one for our classes. They were extremely excited about my proposition; they were most impressed with the uses of Podcasts and YouTube. I shared my thoughts with our IT department and was told that IF we were able to access and use the technology and websites that all of our data/information would be destroyed each night and that it could not be saved to my hard drive. One can imagine how disappointed the students would be if all of their hard work was destroyed.
In my district, I think that we have a long way to go before we are best utilizing our technological capabilities. I have looked at other school districts and their websites, Wiki's and blogs in more 'liberal' states that truly allow students some freedoms and opportunities in their educational and learning paths. When I allow my students to view these, they get excited about learning. What more could we want?
p.s. - Yesterday, I almost fainted when students begged to take a quiz! Really! I recently introduced BrainPop to my students and have been using it as an activating strategy. The lessons are about 2-3 minutes in length and then offer a quiz. So the first day, I showed the introductory segment on my Promethean Board and allowed students to come up to the board with the InterActive Pen to conduct the quiz questions. The following day, I showed another introductory segment and told them that we did not have time for the quiz. The response was unbelievable....they WANTED to take the quiz! Inevitably, I changed my lessons for the rest of my classes.
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I have used all of the above technologies except for BrainPop in past media courses, and agree that they could have great value in educational settings.....if they're 'allowed'. I think that in many cases, administrators, parents, and others hear 'social networking' and imagine a nightmare of backstabbing gossip and inappropriate pictures that they often hear of in relation to noneducational social networks. I think that a great way to introduce them to specific tools that can be used in school settings is to host a workshop in the media center, perhaps in the evening so that working parents could attend as well, and demonstrate how tagging books, photos, and websites (as these specific technologies are used) can be of value to students and teachers, as well as field any questions and concerns that come up. Many times, fear is that of the unknown, and by bringing the uses of these tools front and center, we as media specialists can help to lead the way into using new technologies in schools. Even if the first attempt is unsuccessful, shedding light on the educational value of social networking can help to plant seeds that could at some point in the future, grow into the very real adoption of social networking and other Web 2.0 applications in our media centers and classrooms.
ReplyDeleteNigel posts the relevant question, “Is there a way to incorporate the manner and medium in which our students best learn, through technology, or should educators practice skill and drill techniques that worked in the past?
ReplyDeleteThe past worked for students in the past. We would hope that education would move forward to use the emerging technologies that ARE becoming the way of life for 21st century learners. No longer just trends, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are students’ main sources of communication. Immediate updates on current issues and questions via cell phones and computers keep people talking to each other anywhere 24/7. Phones and computers connect us socially, educationally, and instantly. The “wave of the future” that we imagined in the 1990s has become the “splash on the shore” of contemporary life with people expressing themselves directly in real time in a public forum. No more waiting for the postman, blogs and wikis keep us up on current events and current thought with audio/visual clips, news, and language shortcuts (lol).
Our students are used to the newer technologies and would certainly be motivated to use them in a school setting IF they were able. My school, too, prohibits and filters all the current communication tools mentioned above. I recently wanted to show other teachers some educational devices and ideas mentioned on SchoolTube but was unable to do that because of the district filtering devices. I realize that Twitter and Facebook are much more open types of communicative tools, but I believe they have their place in education. It would be easy for students to get assignments and get their questions answered via Facebook if their teachers could set these up and use these through a school website, for example. I believe the day is coming very soon in which schools will realize they are missing the boat on social networking and develop ways to allow students access to these tools safely.
In all of this, no one is saying we must replace teachers or media specialists with computers and cell phones. No machine or electronic technology can replace the human concern that a good teacher has for his/her students. That human concern translates into finding the right tools to differentiate our instruction for students who are used to social networking. Just as we adopt newer textbooks in the classroom setting, we need to use newer technologies to keep students interested and motivated. The Internet is another tool that will keep our students working in ways they are used to working. If we let classrooms into these social networks, too, students will use these tools to show us what they are doing, where they need help, and how we are doing in getting them the information they need.
You mentioned BrainPop. I love this site for students! While the trial version is free, there is no mention how long the trial version runs. The school subscription version is rather pricey. We did some checking into this for our students recently and found that the Combo price for BrainPop (for grades 4 and up), BrainPop, Jr. (for K-3rd grade) and Spanish BrainPop was $1,425 for a year’s subscription. The good news is, there is a lot of FREE stuff on the site that is accessible and educationally sound there, too. I didn’t see a place for student interaction at the site, but there may be one if a school subscribes to the service.
Information on BrainPop subscription is available at http://www.brainpop.com
Free stuff on BrainPop is available at
http://www.brainpop.com/free_stuff/
and at http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0078768349/student_view0/brainpop_movies.html#
An educator’s site and blog for BrainPop is at http://www.brainpop.com/educators/blog/
I really feel your pain with fighting against IT policies. The administration and board members really have no idea how effective technology can be,especially when motivating children to learn. It is a hard battle to fight. I do like your ideas of using Flickr and Delicious for educational purposes..cool ideas. I will probably steal, I mean borrow:) we do have Blackboard at my school which allows for some blogging and wiki usage. I can post what I want them to see and do, so it makes it easier for me and the students. I also use a blog for my parents and they can ask questions and I send out newsletters and such. I will say that I have found it difficult to get more lower socio-economic students to participate, even though they have access, they do not interact as much as they do in the actual classroom setting, so I am still trying to figure that one out.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Raina
I have come to realize as I read the posts that working in the primary level schools are somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to technology use. Students in grades K-2 are not using things like twitter or facebook which is probably good because I do not even know what they are. Younger children are not exposed to that type of technology in our schools. But we to also have the IT policies that would probably prohibit the use of those types of social networking technologies. I guess that I to am one of the old school types and have not been exposed myself to these types of technology. Blogs and wikis are very new to me and I am having a difficult time with those. I can see where some of the social networking tools can be beneficial to the students of our day because they are explosed to this type of technology in their personal lives. This is technology that interest them and they respond to this with excitment. This type of technology will draw them into really learning to participate and appreciate their on contributions.
ReplyDeleteLike DeeAnn, I'm in an elementary setting and getting some parents on board with using social networking for lessons is like beating your head against a wall. I do understand their concerns about doing things like this, but I think that if they are able to see what is happening and filter the sites through the parents, it would be extremely helpful. That way, the parents are seeing what the students are getting from the media specialist or teacher and the student responses to the posts.
ReplyDeleteWhile I fit the age range that Nigel talked about when she said "'When I was in school, we .....' Those 35 and older can fill in the blank." I wish we had the technology that the students are learning with now. Our excitement came when the teacher would bring out the filmstrip projector or movie projector for reeled films. Now the students have access to Promethean and SmartBoards where they interact with their learning. If they were able to access parts of the social networks like Facebook or MySpace and LibraryThing, the students would enjoy the fun in learning while possibly improving their retention of the standards they are taught.