As a young teacher, still relatively new to the profession, I find myself caught in a very odd position. I am a digital native. Unlike many of my colleagues, I do not have resource books but instead find educational resources and student work online. Many educators that I have encountered are suspicious of the movement towards technology in the classroom and are resistant to the "trend". From what I've seen, I do think that this resistance stems from a fear of new technology. Teachers are caught in the middle of wanting to provide the best learning experience for their students but also needing to monitor and take responsibility for student use of technology. I had a colleague once tell me that once you have been a teacher for a long time, you start to see trends come and go in a cycle. However, there are "tried and true" methods that will always produce results. I think that this mentality is shared by many professionals in education. There is this search for a silver bullet for instruction- methods that will solve our problems and allow every student to learn. Veteran teachers have seen so many programs come and go and so there is a resistance to throwing themselves all in to what might be seen as the next trend. However, to view the use of technology as a trend or silver bullet is a mistake. Embracing technology in the classroom will allow for innovation and creativity on a platform comfortable to most students.
Students have changed and I see that everyday. Solomon and Schrum (2007) noted that the digital natives in our schools today are living in a world that is fundamentally different. For example, students in the past had to research and seek out answers but students of today do not have to scramble to find information; now it comes to them. Everything that a student looks at online has links and feeds to other articles and sites (p. 27). This can be overwhelming. Rather than push students away from this wealth of information, my aha moment was the realization that our students no longer need help finding the information but knowing what to do with this information. They need to be able to work through data and find connections, analyze references, and sift through to find the main idea. While the technology might be intuitive and easy to figure out, organization and analysis must be modeled and taught. As an educator, one of my new goals is to seek out resources for creating customizable databases for the classroom. I can teach students how to collect and store data in an organized way online.
Gilbert (2009) asked: "What might we have to go away and break in order to move things forward in the 21st century for the children in your school?" (p. 45). I think that when problems with our curriculum arise, we always want to fall back to something safe or methods that we have tried in the past. For example, if a student comes to us not being able to read, we immediately want to brush the dust off of a phonics book and start sounding out letters. However, if we acknowledge that our students are growing up in a technology infused environment, we have to force ourselves to try to find new solutions. One of the mantras for reform that was always referenced when I was getting my M.Ed was you can't expect to use the same process to yield new results. If you set out to the solve the problems in the same ways that haven't worked, you shouldn't be surprised when it, again, doesn't work. Students are used to evaluating everything. Is this product worth the price, is the game worth my time, is this comment worth my response. They leave ratings and feedback and comments to sift through information and find what works and what doesn't in their online communities (Prensky 2006). They are innovating and using technology to seek out solutions to old problems. Why aren't we doing the same in our classrooms?
References:
Gilbert, I. (2009). Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only idea you’ve got. Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google?: things every teacher should know (pp. 42-46). London: Routledge.
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Students and learning. Web 2.0: new tools, new schools (pp. 25-44). Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.
Prensky, M. (2006). The emerging online life of a digital native. “Don’t bother me Mom, I’m learning!”: how computer and video games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can help! (pp. 40-51). St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House.
Tech
by: caromurp
Very nice entry and video. At times I believe student insight is overlooked and it most powerful tool that a teacher could use. There are certain restrictions that every student would need to have when brainstorming for structures of the classroom, but in the end, they certainly would know what about the classroom if affecting them in a positive manner.
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and I agree with you that students don’t really need our help in finding the information, they need to know what to do with it and how to use it. I’ve often referred to these times as a ‘fast food world’. We’re surrounded by a tremendous amount of information that is just the push of a button away. It’s sensory overload if you will. Anything we need to find or know we can get in a matter of seconds. And that’s what our students have come to expect: lots of information and the answers they seek, right now. The problem is a lot of times they are looking for that end result or the answer versus really thinking about the information they find and doing something with it.
One of the things I’ve noticed in my anatomy lab is that students sometimes have trouble applying their knowledge. They struggle with taking the knowledge they have, looking at it in a different way, processing it, and then creating new knowledge. For instance when studying the blood vessels, we discuss what types of vessels carry blood to the heart and which ones carry it away from the heart. Then we go over the names and locations of the veins and arteries. Near the end of that lab, I give them an in class assignment of tracing a drop of blood. For instance, name the vessels the blood travels through when it goes from the arm to the heart. I let them work in groups, and they can use their notes and lab manuals. Not all of my students, but a large portion of them don’t know where to start even though they can work together and use their notes and books. They have all the information they need, they just haven’t looked at it in that way prior to the assignment. The first question for many of them is ‘How do we know if they’re veins or arteries?’. To get the ball rolling I ask them where they’re supposed to trace the blood from and to, and then which vessels carry blood to the heart and which ones carry blood away from the heart. That’s usually enough to create a light bulb moment and then they can take it from there.
I feel like our students are getting soft in the areas of problem solving and applying knowledge, in part, because of the Internet. There’s so much information out there and you can usually find the answer you’re looking for without thinking about how or why it’s the answer. It just is. Kind of like the calculator. Think of how great we’d all be at math if we didn’t have calculators!
Ultimately, I think educators should embrace the Internet. It’s here to stay, and it’s an unparalleled resource that our students crave. I just think there needs to be a real focus on showing students how to use it productively. It’s more than just a place to socialize, play cool games, and get answers from experts. It’s a vast resource from which information can be gathered to create knowledge and make sense of the world. And, of course, it’s a fun place to hang out!
Spoken like a true digital native! Thanks for trailblazing this first assignment for us. Looks like you've already triggered some great dialogue! We can certainly do more to leverage the technology to give students more ownership and collaboration. Great suggestions in your video.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Caroline and I enjoyed reading your post, it was very insightful, and I love your video. I also agree that students need to be taught what to do with the information they get from the Web. I do have some concerns though. Maybe it is me, but don't you think technologies in schools to some extent are necessarily being pedagogized and to what extent would technology use in school match the taste of the 'natives'. Last spring semester I read a book- A New Literacy Sampler (Knobel, M.& Lankshear (Eds), 2007). Part of the book talked about this school that had a lap-top program where every student had a laptop and students did whatever they wanted. Issues with visiting inappropriate site, plagiarism, cyber bullying amongst students, concerntration in class as the students (all girls) prefered chatting with friends online, and teachers complaining of loss of communication with students, likewise students with their peers in school, came up. Eventually, the laptop program was restricted to school approved sites and library research. In scenarios like this, would you blame the immigrants for their misgivings and how can a balance be created so technology use doesn't seem pedagogized? I agree natives should be given liberty to create but no matter how technology savvy they are, they still need to be taught positive ways to create, which is what some lack. I agree they know how to get information they want, they still need to be taught how to filter the information they get. Not everything in the internet is true.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminds me a lot of what I felt like five years ago. I was just beginning as a teacher, and I felt akin to the technological, internet-savvy students of the time. I find now that, despite having just turned 30, I am now way behind where my current students are. What I think is important is to try and recognize the suspicion of new things that you mention, and kick it to the curb when you think that you're falling into that trap. I'm not as up-to-date on these things as the modern student is, but I don't think any teacher really can be. What they can do is embrace the students' own creativity and drive and knowledge, and help to direct that positively. Also, always be willing to listen and learn from them!
ReplyDeleteI like your digital learner's ownership of the learning experience, wanting to get the whole class involved in sharing different kinds of art for everyone else to see. It rings true to me for what I see from a lot of students, since I work at an arts magnet and even in my own science classroom, that artistic drive is always present.
Ella, your insightful comment reminds me of my favorite quote from A New Culture of Learning. He says, "We believe, however, that learning should be viewed in
ReplyDeleteterms of an environment-combined with the rich resources provided by the digital information network-where the context in which learning happens, the boundaries that define it, and the students, teachers, and information within it all coexist and shape each other in a mutually reinforcing way. Here, boundaries serve not only as constraints, but also, oftentimes, as catalysts for innovation." (Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 35)
There's an interesting video featuring John in Edutopia's Big Thinkers series at http://www.edutopia.org/john-seely-brown-motivating-learners-video.