Each year technology has become more and more
extravagant, and it produces some great results, while at the same time
hindering one's ability to learn. When I was first introduced to technology in
about the fourth grade, it was exciting. I was able to explore new things, and
learn how to do research, type etc.. just like Olivia and others mentioned in
the videos. However, now that I look back on technology, and all of the pros, I
begin to also notice the cons.
As a teacher, I feel that it is important for me to
know Olivia’s relationship to, and uses of technology. First, I would want to
make sure that my student has a foundation and previous knowledge of a topic or
subject before doing research from a computer and/or other device. For example,
hoping to become an English teacher, I would not give the writing of an essay
to a student who have not yet developed a foundation for sight words, grammar
rules, or how to format an essay, because if they do not yet know how to do it
on their own, using technology would not help them to develop an understanding
of it. It would merely do the work for them. If the student write an essay and
sees that a word is spelled wrong and chooses to let the computer choose the
“correct word” to use, the student’ attempted thought may become altered due to
the computer. And, the student will never be able to spell this word correctly.
I would also like to know how many of my students
have access to a computer because if majority of them do not, I may try to
arrange a class trip to the school’s library or other resources so that all
children will have the same material available to them. And, I would make
availavle to those who are not “tech savy” some extra help from me and/or their
classmates so that they are able to become familiar with some new resources available
to them.
In both videos, technology was mainly utilized for
communication. Myspace, ipad, phones, emails, text messaging, facebook, twitter
etc… All of these forms of technology were used as a way for students to mainly
communicate with their family and friends. It also served as a means of
expression. Students are able to create their own blogs, and/or profiles the
way that they want to. Lastly, it was utilized to find out information for
projects, homework, or just information that they found to be interesting.
However, the con of technology is that all of the
students in the videos express how they NEED technology, and depend on technology
for their everyday lives. I know that after becoming familiar with technology
so much, it is difficult to just tune it out; however, I do not find it good to
become too dependable on technology. Technology produces both some pros as well
as cons.
I chose for my top three most influential
communications technologies in my life are:
1) iphone
2) laptop
3) car
When I was younger, I was able to remember what I
needed to do, along with the birthdays and phone numbers of my family and
friends. However, now, similar to the students in the video, I NEED my phone,
or ipad, or computer to help me remember these things. I no longer can remember
or recite phone numbers. I feel that even though technology has introduced us
to a totally new way of learning, it also hinders our ability to think and to learn
on our own. I used to know all the states, all of the planets etc... but, now
it seems that I have the idea in my brain that, "there is no point in
learning information when I can always just google the answer". Then,
texting and using acronyms have hindered my ability to spell. I now have to
rethink some things that I write in order to make sure that I spelled it
correctly, and did not speak grammatically incorrectly.
Being able to use technology as a tool, is the most important skill students have today.You've been lucky to be exposed to technology very early in life and it has influenced your life.But as you mentioned,we have to be careful as teacher to monitor better our students and the way they use technology. For example, use it as a support to improve their writing skill. Because, I feel our children are becoming to dependent on technology. I think we have to encourage student to comprehend how to use their devices to reinforce their knowledge.It has to be a support and use as an intelligent way to face and solve problems in expressing their thoughts and ideas.
ReplyDeleteHi Lorraine,
ReplyDeleteI found your post very interesting, and I do agree with the cons you mentioned. It is important to find out what your students know before beginning to assign things that may be beyond their comprehension. With that being said, I would try and have extra help for them, maybe even going over general essay formats. Also, I would have them type things out in the computer lab at the school (if there is one) and if they spell a word wrong, have them look it up in the dictionary before having the computer automatically correct it.
Computers can be helpful, what with the Internet and Dictionary.com, but as you correctly pointed out, they will probably get too comfortable with those tools and it will not help them with their own common and background knowledge.
Thank you for your informative and interesting post.
Allison
Lorraine,
ReplyDeleteI am comforted to read your blog knowing that we have some of the same concerns. You have great specific points about how technology can alter a student's ability to learn, especially in the English classroom. In my opinion, I think English is the primary subject that is actually effected the most by technology because of such things like spell check, google, sparknotes, etc. I think we need to look at our classroom as a place where we don't speak or write texting acronyms, but routinely practice speaking and writing correctly.
Your post made me think back to when I was younger, and how I memorized all of my friends phone numbers, never played video games, and had to use a dictionary. It's interesting how much I rely on technology now. It's not necessarily a bad thing, if taught correctly. We definitely can use technology to our advantage for researching and data collecting on different literary topics, genres, and eras.
I agree with you about being aware and knowing all of your students- some may not have computers. Therefore, we need to encourage dependent knowledge, like you said. Thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it!
Kate
Hi Lorraine,
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading your post and I can definitely relate to your experience of being much more dependent on technology now than when you were younger. I remember I had all of my close family members' and friends' phone numbers memorized back in middle school and early high school, but now I rarely memorize new phone numbers because I know I have my iPhone to do it for me. I also rely heavily on Google search, dictionary.com, etc. to help me access information quickly. I think we're all a little guilty of relying on technology just a bit too much, but at least we grew up at a time when the school system focused more on content knowledge and basic skills first, and technology second.
I definitely agree with what you were saying about how important it is for students to know how to write and spell well before they use technology like spell check to help them fix their mistakes. To add to that idea, I think it would be good for us to try to incorporate required library research into our future assignments. By that I mean that students would need to physically go to the library and obtain research from books, journals, and encyclopedias for their essays first before adding online sources into the mix. I'm in favor of setting up requirements for sources for essays that limit students to using a small number of online sources (from reliable databases) as a way of encouraging them to use other traditional research methods.
Kate
Great job all!
ReplyDelete