Technology – You Better Find Room for It April 13, 2007
Posted by waldrup49 in English310.trackback
What role does technology play in the classroom? I would like to talk about this question today even though it doesn’t specifically concern blogs. I just feel as though it is important to discuss and come to some sort of position as individual educators belief on technology in general while looking at blogs specifically.
Tomorrow, myself and some of my classmates will be going to The Bright Ideas , a conference for English language art/literacy educators at Michigan State University, and much of we will hear will have to do with technology. So again I will ask the question but in a different way, what role should technology play in the classroom? Some educators are very intimidated by technology. While others feel as though technology get in the way of the connection between an individual student and the teacher. Still others have some unknown reason to resist any change in there chosen profession where they are the expert and see the change as losing some of this expertise. Before discussing this further please read this excerpt from an article in The Roanoke Times:
Dylan Holcomb’s 10th-grade English students shouted the names of Shakespeare’s plays as they identified them while watching a YouTube clip of “Jeopardy!”
Earlier, Holcomb used Google Earth to show his Del Oro High School students the distance between Venice and Cyprus, where the play “Othello” is set, and had them calculate the distance.
“When you use a YouTube clip of a guy doing Shakespeare in England, they’re impressed,” Holcomb said. “It speaks to them a little more because that’s their generation. They live in that world. They live in the Internet.”
Holcomb is among a growing number of teachers using Internet tools, programs and Web sites to enhance curriculum. The trend is being noticed by Internet companies, such as Google, which makes its products readily available to educators.
“There is definitely a trend in the educational community at large of using the Internet in the classroom,” said Bart O’Brien, superintendent of the Placer Union High School District.
As Mr. O’Brien says the use of the Internet is definitely a trend in education but so are most technologies. The key to this is how it is used. Opponents of technology will say that to many educators are using technology as the main focus in the classroom and bending the curriculum to it. They say this detracts from the purpose of the class and that core material is not being learned and academic ability is not being served. In my opinion this is a cop out. I agree that the curriculum should be the main focus and technology should be used to support and enhance the learning of the material being taught. But to use the improper use of technology in the classroom as an excuse not use it to me in ridiculous. The fault does not lie in the technology bitin the philosophy and poor teaching methods of the instructor. It seems to me that with the ever increasing use of technology in the world around us that the use of it in the classroom should not be some sort of decision of preference but a mandatory inclusion into the curriculum. With all the different aspects of media including things like social networking sites, blogs, you-tube, etc that we should be able to find some sort of technology to support our curriculum. This is the world the students of today are en-wrapped in and we as educators need to use it as a vehicle to teaching our students.
Roanoke.com
Online learning earns a net gain in classroom
By Niesha Lofing
McClatchy-Tribune
April 2007
I agree with you Wade – current teachers need to stop being so afraid of technology coming into the classroom. From the examples given in the article you wrote about, it is easy to see that technology can enhance the learning experience. When I had to read Othello for school, I would have appreciated some technology input. Though I had a general idea of how far Venice and Cyprus were from one another, I could have used a teacher like the one in the article, who used google maps to show his students the actual distance. After having gone to the breakout session at which Bethany and David presented, I really have seen how afraid teachers are of using technology with their students. A few of the teachers at the breakout session kept complaining to Bethany and David that their schools wouldn’t allow the use of myspace, that not all students would have access to the internet, and that it would take up too much class time. These may be valid reasons for not using myspace for some of these teachers, but I have the suspicious feeling that they were more like excuses to not have to change their teaching styles.
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You couldn’t have been more accurate. I think that teachers who either do not know how to use technology or teachers who are not sure how to incorporate it in their classrooms find multiple reasons to get out of using it. I think that with a little work any teacher can use technology without coming close to have it taking over in the classroom. Now, I do think that the technology should tie in with what is being taught but this is not as hard as one may think.
Sometimes I think teachers may be intimidated by the technology and the fact that the students are more familiar with it than they are. If your a twenty year teacher and you can’t figure out this computer program and a ten year old comes up and does it in a minute flat you may feel a inadequate. I think this would be a sign of the amount of intrest the students take in the area of technology. They may not have read the selection out of their book the night before, but they did look at that new clip on Utube. You have to use this to connect with them at their level. The use of technology often allows students to connect things on a visual level or if they are using it themselves on a hands on level. This is a way to make sure all students in class are engaged.
Technology is here to stay and there is no way to get around it. Teachers must look at it as a tool and not as a hassle. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the use of technology. The internet is the name of the game.
To add on to what you and other commentors have said, we, as teachers, have to integrate ourselves into the world of our students, not vice-versa. Our world has become a technological one, and as a country, we are lagging behind others because we are not keeping up. Our students are bound to fall even further behind if they are not given the opportunity to apply technology in their everyday lives.
I know that before taking this class and other technologically-based classes like ED 205, I was terrified at the idea of trying to bring technology into my classroom. But after some of the things we have learned, it really isn’t difficult. It is not as though we are teaching our students how to use technology–they already know how to do that. What we are doing is enhancing their learning by integrating things they are accustomed to. In turn, we are also making learning more fun and interesting. Put yourself in their situation: Would you rather write a five-paragraph essay or make a MySpace account for a character in Shakespeare (like some of us witnessed at the Bright Ideas conference)? There is just no competition, is there?
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I’m not going to lie, Wade, I too find myself being like “Where does technology fit in with me?” Not so much as an english teacher, since I have not really given that like a huge amount of though (it’s my minor), but more as like where is it going to fit into my life as a teacher period. I do not want to be one of those fifty-something teacher’s that does not know how to do stuff (I can’t even imagine what kind of tech there is going to be when I’m fifty). Anyway, I think after the ideas that flew around at the conference, I bet the best way to keep in touch about using the tech is through blogs, just like this. Just weighing in on it.
Dan
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Wade,
This is a very interesting article. I think that as teachers we have to be very careful. It seems that everything cool that we want to do with or for kids comes with potential harms. Kids are so smart and when they want do naughty things it is amazing what their little minds can come up with. Perhaps I should not say little minds, I do not mean it that way. I do think that teachers need to be up on what kids are doing. We cannot reach them if we do not go to them.
I have enjoyed all of your comments in class also. You have some very thought provoking things to say, I think it is a value to the class.
I am sure you are going to make an excellent teacher and a very key component to the staff of whatever district you choose to join.
Kim
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