Speaking their Language and Playing Catch-up

In a time when the practical skills in children are increasingly underdeveloped with traditional milestones being replaced by digital ones we as educators feel coerced to keep up with the development of digital language and media. Teachers who have been teaching for years are being told they need to catch-up with their students who have all but become one with their Smartphones and laptops. Smartboards and classroom wifi appear to be mission critical, while classic technology gets thrown out with yesterday’s newspaper.

Unfortunately, it appears that this is the language our students will be speaking: “seven out of ten two to five year olds are happy playing on-line games compared to just 11 per cent who were capable of tying their shoelaces.”[1] And although dominating at W.O.W. demonstrates some level of fine motor skill development it should be concerning that a basic task like tying ones shoes has been overlooked by parents today. In the same article quoted here, it is expressed that children are losing out on social and physical well-being because parents are using the computer screen as a babysitter to entertain their children while they get things done around the house. Further stressing this point, less than two in ten of the children surveyed could swim unaided while 23 per cent of children between two and five were able to use a cell phone. Moreover, “less than half knew their own home address and only a third were able to write their first and last names.” [2]

These are the children that we will see in our classrooms, practically born with Smartphones in hand and headphones in their ears. They’re familiarity with technology will undoubtedly surprise us as we fumble our way through whatever is the greatest and latest. However, how much responsibility is on us to keep up with technology? Should we all begin to anticipate the day when we will simply have to download our lesson plans to a student’s chip that has been embedded in their brain?

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[1] Roberts, Laura. "Children can play computer games but can't tie their shoelaces, research finds - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. .

[2] Ibid.

Technology is only a tool.

Defining technology as a teaching support and not a teaching substitute

There is no question that there is a great demand on a teacher’s time. Planning lessons, marking assignments, and extracurricular activities alone are enough to fill up one’s schedule outside of the classroom. However, when we’re feeling lazy playing a video or throwing the class into the computer lab is wasting the time we’re given to teach our students.
As a cohort we learned the importance of setting students up for success when watching movies specifically, however, this practical example can be applied to a much larger idea of using a variety of contemporary technologies. Students need to be direct toward the end goal of a lesson. If we fail to provide the direction students need we cannot expect that they will miraculously be able to read our minds and find the answers we saw as obvious. We cannot assume the main point will strike our students in the same way; the adult filter that we sift information through is more developed than the information filter of a middle school student (hopefully). We may pick up on subtle themes and major arguments but without directing students to what they should be looking for they are unlikely to find the same information we did. This could be done as easily as providing students doing an online research project with a chart to fill in on their topic with a list of the different points of interest they need to cover. Another example is our experience in class, telling some students to take note of names of instructors, steps to the procedure, and the name of the procedure left these students better equipped when the tests came around. When we’re creating a lesson we need to be aware of what we want out students to take away from the lesson.
Technology can make the lives of a teacher easier, or provide another platform to engage students, however we have to realize that technology is only a tool. Booking the computer lab doesn’t give us the day off and pressing play on an educational video doesn’t mean students will miraculously understand the unit.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome"

Reflecting on The Shifting Discourses of Opening Speech: A meander in the Mainstream of Educational Technology by Denis Hynka

The above mentioned article describes the main support for modern educational media as computer software, moving the classroom into the computer monitor that the majority of students spend 30 hours a week in front of, on their own time.[1] As students engage with this form of media, becoming more proficient then many of their archaic teachers, they become less motivated by the technology itself. Bringing a cart of computers into the classroom may have sparked a sense of novelty in students initially that allowed the medium to acts as its own reinforcer; however, as computers become incorporated into the classroom they are expected by the class rather than an innovative way to engage students.

Educational videos operate as an effective form crowd control, as students have been socialized to sit quietly and allow this form of media to wash over them. The classroom may passively engage with content however eventually satiation sets in and Bill Nye does not bring as much excitement as it did the first time the videos were brought into the classroom. The Norman McLaren produced film Opening Speech has a certain level of novelty, largely because it is black-and-white and provides a window back in time to 1961. Incorporating modern films and the latest of gadgets can enthrall kids for a while, however, the novelty of technologies they are less likely to use may surprise teaching professionals with how they can hold a student’s attention. When every student spends 30 hours a week on a computer the idea of paper and markers to create a poster appears more exciting and enthralling then using Photoshop or whatever the latest image editing software happens to be at the time.

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[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100920123552.htm