Do you think that the integration of technology is really a racket to make money for business? Does movements to use more technology in classrooms have our students' best interests in mind?
Technology does work in the classroom. I have seen it with my students, and especially the ones who struggle on a particular skill. Our students are digital natives, and therefore gravitate and respond more quickly to learning with technology. For the most part, I think that the movement to use more technology in the classroom does have the student's best interest because it is creating a different form of learning for students, and serves as a great aid for the teacher.
However, I agree with some of the points that Michael Hiltzik said in his article Who really benefits from putting high-tech gadgets in classrooms? I think that because companies are seeing the need and impact that technology is having on schools, some are trying to take advantage and make a profit. There are too many techy products that come out claiming to revolutionize teaching or make learning easier for the students, but companies do not take the time to understand the real needs of education and it's problems. On many instances, schools/districts have spent unnecessary large amounts of money on a technology product that sits collecting dust on a shelf, or the product is not really living up to what the seller claimed it could do. Some companies completely overprice the product to their advantage without taking in consideration of what the school/district can afford or what they have to do without. When this happens, I am not so sure that these companies have our students best interest. I believe that using any kind of technology in the classroom is going to be a business. One just needs to be more selective in what to buy and make sure that it is reasonable, productive, and effective.
The biggest point that got my attention in Michael Hiltzik's article was:
"Many would-be educational innovators treat technology as an end-all and be-all, making no effort to figure out how to integrate it into the classroom. "Computers, in and of themselves, do very little to aid learning," Gavriel Salomon of the University of Haifa and David Perkins of Harvard observed in 1996. Placing them in the classroom "does not automatically inspire teachers to rethink their teaching or students to adopt new modes of learning."
I completely agree with this quote because technology in itself will not give the desired results and automatically make all students learn. Nothing can replace a teacher. But it is the teacher's responsibility to figure out how to integrate technology as part of the lesson, not have the technology teach the lesson or be the lesson. Gavriel Salomon is right when he stated " Computers, in and of themselves, do very little to aid learning," because computers like anything else, can be used for good, or can be used for bad. The computer is nothing without the guidance of the teacher and the integrative lessons that go along with using the computer.
Technology has the power to lift a student or allow him to remain flat lined, and the deciding factor of that outcome will be on the teacher. Whether or not these businesses have our student's best interest should not affect what we do in the classroom. They are a business, they will always try to make money out of a deal. Companies may not have our students best interest in mind, but we as teachers need to. There is a technology movement going on, and technology does work in the classrooms when used appropriately, but we need to be selective in our products and realize that technology is here to aid the teacher not be the teacher.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
What do you need to work on?
Part of becoming better at using technology during teaching is doing a self assessment of your skills.. what are some areas that you need to work on to make more meaningful use of technology in your job?
I need to work on allowing my students to take more charge of their own learning. I have a very dependent class this year, so everything we do takes more guidance, and more time. Because of this, there are some aspects of technology that I normally do in my class that I have not done with my current class because "there is no time." So I tend to control some of the technology in the classroom instead of allowing them to use it for themselves.I need to work on making time so I can provide my students with the best kind of teaching practice that I know how to do. If time is still an issue, I need to work on how to better incorporate the technology in order to fit the needs of the current class that I have. I need to change and alter the technology for them, instead of waiting for the students to catch up to the technology.
I know they are capable of understanding the technology because they have become very proficient with the smartboard. Some of my students know how to manipulate it more than some of the teachers in our building just from watching what I do with it. They are proficient with it because the smartboard is something we have used everyday since the beginning of the school year. So instead of taking time out from the needed reading/math instruction, I could try to gradually introduce something in smaller steps everyday and then have the students take over once I see most are ready to do it on their own and incorporate it into the core subjects. I just need to be a facilitator.
I need to work on allowing my students to take more charge of their own learning. I have a very dependent class this year, so everything we do takes more guidance, and more time. Because of this, there are some aspects of technology that I normally do in my class that I have not done with my current class because "there is no time." So I tend to control some of the technology in the classroom instead of allowing them to use it for themselves.I need to work on making time so I can provide my students with the best kind of teaching practice that I know how to do. If time is still an issue, I need to work on how to better incorporate the technology in order to fit the needs of the current class that I have. I need to change and alter the technology for them, instead of waiting for the students to catch up to the technology.
I know they are capable of understanding the technology because they have become very proficient with the smartboard. Some of my students know how to manipulate it more than some of the teachers in our building just from watching what I do with it. They are proficient with it because the smartboard is something we have used everyday since the beginning of the school year. So instead of taking time out from the needed reading/math instruction, I could try to gradually introduce something in smaller steps everyday and then have the students take over once I see most are ready to do it on their own and incorporate it into the core subjects. I just need to be a facilitator.
How might I change
Is there something that we did or read that sparked something in you.. and made you think - I could be doing something different that would make me more effective in my job, my life, or my role as a student?
One of the things that I need to change in technology is to really research the technology product that I get for my classroom. I feel like I at times I rush to just use it in my room that I don't make sure that whatever I am doing with it really brings a meaningful lesson that the students can learn from.
I need to work on putting an assessment after using the technology. I need to ask myself, "What do I want them to learn from this?", " How am I going to assess what they learn?", " What do they need to know?', " What do if they don't know?", and " What can I do once they know the skill?" There has to be a purpose to whatever technology that I am using in my classroom.
I need to work on looking at the whole picture, instead of being instantly sold on a new technology idea of teaching. Just how we tell our students to "stop, look, listen," I need to stop, research, and look at the possible outcomes and see the pro's and con's about the technology product. There are budget cuts going around through out our district, so we can't afford to misuse our funds over something that will not give us results.
We have some pieces of technology that our administrator bought because it looked good on paper, and it read proven to raise test scores. One of these products was the Smartboard slate. This product in reality did not produce nothing of what it promised, and became problematic. The product would not work half of time, and when it did, it was just faster to go up and manipulate the smartboard yourself than using the slate. I don't know what it was about this product, but this is the product that really got me wondering about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom. I think it was because they were really expensive and I found out how much the total was! Not all technology is the best technology for the classroom, and because of that, I need to change how I select what I use in my classroom.
One of the things that I need to change in technology is to really research the technology product that I get for my classroom. I feel like I at times I rush to just use it in my room that I don't make sure that whatever I am doing with it really brings a meaningful lesson that the students can learn from.
I need to work on putting an assessment after using the technology. I need to ask myself, "What do I want them to learn from this?", " How am I going to assess what they learn?", " What do they need to know?', " What do if they don't know?", and " What can I do once they know the skill?" There has to be a purpose to whatever technology that I am using in my classroom.
I need to work on looking at the whole picture, instead of being instantly sold on a new technology idea of teaching. Just how we tell our students to "stop, look, listen," I need to stop, research, and look at the possible outcomes and see the pro's and con's about the technology product. There are budget cuts going around through out our district, so we can't afford to misuse our funds over something that will not give us results.
We have some pieces of technology that our administrator bought because it looked good on paper, and it read proven to raise test scores. One of these products was the Smartboard slate. This product in reality did not produce nothing of what it promised, and became problematic. The product would not work half of time, and when it did, it was just faster to go up and manipulate the smartboard yourself than using the slate. I don't know what it was about this product, but this is the product that really got me wondering about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom. I think it was because they were really expensive and I found out how much the total was! Not all technology is the best technology for the classroom, and because of that, I need to change how I select what I use in my classroom.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Taking a traditional activity and turning it to a 21st century Brain!
It is so quick to label a student with ADD/ADHD in so many schools . On pg. 7, Prensky writes, "Is it that Digital Natives can't pay attention, or that they choose not to?" This questions keeps spinning around in my head. Especially when he writes " Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, or for anything else that actually interest them ...... So it generally isn't that Digital Natives can't pay attention, it's that they choose not to." (pg.18)
When I read this, I thought back to the game that I constantly played when I came home from school. It was called "The Island of Dr. Brain," and it was in a floppy disk! I credit this game to teaching me problem solving skills and critical thinking skills. I coudn't learn these skills at schools because everything was lecture, and as an ELL student it was really hard to understand what my teacher wanted. But the lecture made us, fidgety, we were bored and could not sit still. We didn't have ADD, we were just bored and not motivated to learn the skill. The lectures and assingments that we once had to endure in our classrooms need to stop and be turned into a modern approach.
Take the traditional geometry lesson of learning angles and lines. We get a book, we open the page, and we look at the picture and label, right angle, obtuse angle, or acute angle. Identify and write perpendicular line, parallel line, or intersecting lines. Nowadays, if we try this lesson in our classroom, I think every single student in the classroom will develop a case of ADD, and will choose not to pay attention.
So let's take this lesson into the 21st centry brain, and have the students get into groups and provide each group with a camera. Have them go around the school and take snapshots of various angles and lines that they find around the school. Once that is finished, have the groups upload their pictures and showcase them into some sort of presentation for the class using flickr, power point, voice thread, etc. Have them play with these forms of media sharing beforehand and let them experiment with it.
In Mark Bauerlein's introduction on pg: xiv he states, " One of the dangers of the Digital Age is that technology changes so rapidly that it clouds our memory of things as they existed but a few years past. ....... And if that's true, then the outlook we adopt now, even at the cutting edge of technology, may have little bearing upon ordinary experience ten years hence. So whatever it is that we teach, we need to make sure that we apply the use of technology as a problem solving approach. We need to be focusing on higher order thinking to make sure they know how to approach something that is unknown, because in reality we are preparing our kids on how to use pieces of technology that have not been invented yet.
How is you teaching?
Is there something that we did or read that sparked something in you.. and made you think - I could be doing something different that would make me more effective in my job, my life, or my role as a student?
There are many things that made reflect on technology and learning from section one. However, I really enjoyed reading Marc Prensky essays over digitial natives/digital immigrants as well as do they really think differently? because I was able to relate my teaching and the way that I learned when I was younger through his reading.
In regards to my teaching, Prensky presented a lot of point of views that challenged the way I view my students and my instruction, as well as how I see other educators in my school view our students. On pg. 6 he writes "Digital immigrants don't believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the immigrants) can't." This struck out to me because on my first year of teaching, I found myself getting in this frame of mind that because I couldn't do it, there is no way my students wouldn't be able to, and that is far from the truth. I grew up in the time that when it was time to study and learn, everything was turned off, the only thing you had was your notes, pencil, and paper, and no form of distraction. So I subconsciously tried to make my instruction that way. The students needed to sit quietly to listen, with no distractions, because it was time to learn. To me it seemed almost impossible to be really be able to learn something if you did not have your attention fully on it. But the digital age has changed that. I was surprised by the research study that Marc talked about on pg. 18, with the children who watched Sesame Street with toys, and one with no toys. It was incredible that both groups retained the same amount of information. That at such an early age these students are already picking and choosing what information to listen to, and what is important. And most of all they are showing us that they can multitask. Now, I even feel silly just for even once having this thought since I am sitting here writing this blog, listening to TV, texting, flipping through my book, and making sure that my tank of a puppy does't chew up anymore of my shoes! The amazing is that I am being more productive now, then when I sit with no "distractions." So is this my digital immigrant brain adapting and re-learning, and forming new connections.
This led me to question how it is so quick to label a student with ADD/ADHD in so many schools . On pg. 7, Prensky writes, "Is it that Digital Natives can't pay attention, or that they choose not to?" This questions keeps spinning around in my head. Especially when he writes " Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, or for anything else that actually interest them ...... So it generally isn't that Digital Natives can't pay attention, it's that they choose not to." (pg.18) As educators we really need to stop trying to label every student with some kind of excuse as to why they are not learning in our classroom, and instead find what makes them learn. We need to break free of our inhibitions of trying new technology, and just go for it. Stop making excuses, and be proactive. When I first started teaching, my school had no idea what a smartboard did, and neither did I. But it was taking up room in my classroom, so I decided to mess with it and see if I could use it, or dispose of it. The smartboard turned out to be the single greatest thing I had in my classroom, and now 3 years later we have a smartboard in every classroom. Too many times teachers also think it's too difficult to teach students how to work a piece of technology. This is true especially in the younger grade levels. That group of students is constantly being passed up on getting technology, when in reality they are the true digital natives. Interactive clickers for example, are a powerful tool for quick assessment, and offer less time spent on grading stacks of paper tests. However, some educators do not want to spend the time to learn the clickers and show the students, especially the younger students. What I found with my first graders is that they will learn it, if they are motivated to learn it. And because they clickers provide immediate results, they are begging me after the test to go back to the questions they missed so I can explain it and tell them the right answer. We have to use technology in our classroom, and if it's unknown we need to find the resources on how we could use it before we are ready to discard it. We don't have a lot to lose because we are currently losing half of our students already, so take the leap and go for it. You will be amazed at your results!
There are many things that made reflect on technology and learning from section one. However, I really enjoyed reading Marc Prensky essays over digitial natives/digital immigrants as well as do they really think differently? because I was able to relate my teaching and the way that I learned when I was younger through his reading.
In regards to my teaching, Prensky presented a lot of point of views that challenged the way I view my students and my instruction, as well as how I see other educators in my school view our students. On pg. 6 he writes "Digital immigrants don't believe their students can learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the immigrants) can't." This struck out to me because on my first year of teaching, I found myself getting in this frame of mind that because I couldn't do it, there is no way my students wouldn't be able to, and that is far from the truth. I grew up in the time that when it was time to study and learn, everything was turned off, the only thing you had was your notes, pencil, and paper, and no form of distraction. So I subconsciously tried to make my instruction that way. The students needed to sit quietly to listen, with no distractions, because it was time to learn. To me it seemed almost impossible to be really be able to learn something if you did not have your attention fully on it. But the digital age has changed that. I was surprised by the research study that Marc talked about on pg. 18, with the children who watched Sesame Street with toys, and one with no toys. It was incredible that both groups retained the same amount of information. That at such an early age these students are already picking and choosing what information to listen to, and what is important. And most of all they are showing us that they can multitask. Now, I even feel silly just for even once having this thought since I am sitting here writing this blog, listening to TV, texting, flipping through my book, and making sure that my tank of a puppy does't chew up anymore of my shoes! The amazing is that I am being more productive now, then when I sit with no "distractions." So is this my digital immigrant brain adapting and re-learning, and forming new connections.
This led me to question how it is so quick to label a student with ADD/ADHD in so many schools . On pg. 7, Prensky writes, "Is it that Digital Natives can't pay attention, or that they choose not to?" This questions keeps spinning around in my head. Especially when he writes " Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, or for anything else that actually interest them ...... So it generally isn't that Digital Natives can't pay attention, it's that they choose not to." (pg.18) As educators we really need to stop trying to label every student with some kind of excuse as to why they are not learning in our classroom, and instead find what makes them learn. We need to break free of our inhibitions of trying new technology, and just go for it. Stop making excuses, and be proactive. When I first started teaching, my school had no idea what a smartboard did, and neither did I. But it was taking up room in my classroom, so I decided to mess with it and see if I could use it, or dispose of it. The smartboard turned out to be the single greatest thing I had in my classroom, and now 3 years later we have a smartboard in every classroom. Too many times teachers also think it's too difficult to teach students how to work a piece of technology. This is true especially in the younger grade levels. That group of students is constantly being passed up on getting technology, when in reality they are the true digital natives. Interactive clickers for example, are a powerful tool for quick assessment, and offer less time spent on grading stacks of paper tests. However, some educators do not want to spend the time to learn the clickers and show the students, especially the younger students. What I found with my first graders is that they will learn it, if they are motivated to learn it. And because they clickers provide immediate results, they are begging me after the test to go back to the questions they missed so I can explain it and tell them the right answer. We have to use technology in our classroom, and if it's unknown we need to find the resources on how we could use it before we are ready to discard it. We don't have a lot to lose because we are currently losing half of our students already, so take the leap and go for it. You will be amazed at your results!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Some Classroom Tech Advice
Ways that a teacher might need to change common practice to engage digital natives:
1. Subscribe to technology feeds. Pick and choose what you would like to try and what would work best in your specific classroom.
2. Attend professional development that focuses on integrating technology in the classroom.
3. Stay connected! Talk to other staff members and educators about what they do in the classroom.
4. Small steps, wins the race. Try one technology idea at a time and don't overwhelm yourself!
5. Always reflect. Was the new technology useful? Were the students engaged? Did it meet the objective you were going for? Did the students learn? What can I do differently next time?
1. Subscribe to technology feeds. Pick and choose what you would like to try and what would work best in your specific classroom.
2. Attend professional development that focuses on integrating technology in the classroom.
3. Stay connected! Talk to other staff members and educators about what they do in the classroom.
4. Small steps, wins the race. Try one technology idea at a time and don't overwhelm yourself!
5. Always reflect. Was the new technology useful? Were the students engaged? Did it meet the objective you were going for? Did the students learn? What can I do differently next time?
Friday, January 20, 2012
About Me
My name is Diana. I have been working in an urban school district since 2007. I have taught first and fourth grade, prior to becoming an ELL teacher. A lot of our schools are 90% free and reduced lunch, with a high population of Hispanic students at some schools. I love teaching in that kind of school setting because I feel like that is where I am needed the most. It helps that I am able to relate with a lot of my students and their parents since I am also from an immigrant family, and I can understand some of the trials they are going through. During my third year of teaching I realized that I had become very passionate about technology in the classroom. I try to continue to find ways to use technology in the classroom not to replace a teacher, but to aid the teacher in whole group and small group instruction. I enjoy training my staff members over our new technology as well as teachers from our district because it not only allows me to share things that I know, but it allows me to learn from other educators about different things that they do in the classroom.
Remy - my sweet puppy Dog!
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