After watching the videos (the one linked here in particular) I have come to the conclusion that Web 2.0 is all about interacting and creating and not just observing. Okay, so here's the rub--what is the reality of our situation? Are we asking our students to create and interact on a daily basis? "To solve problems that they didn't start"? Maybe, depending on how you teach, but in the end, they are really asked to just observe, aren't they? To fill in the scantron at the end of the year and let what they have "observed" determine their worth as students and ours as teachers. This is the frustration that I spoke of in my previous post.
Now that I've stated what may have gone through the minds of many of you (or maybe not, maybe I was just being negative), I will move on. I think that's why I am taking this course. To find the satisfaction. To prove that yes, I can teach to a standardized test (there! I said it!), but do so in a way that encourages true participation and interaction. It just takes work and revisioning.
For example, as a reading teacher I know that one of the challenges is helping to make the reading relevant to the student. Well, now the challenge is extended to how do I not only make the material relevant, but how do I make their method of response and interactions with the material relevant? I love the idea of the students using wikispaces to create their own study guide. It's so much more relevant, obviously, but also so much more like a real world situation! Plus, this kind of learning allows the students to create and build something together rather than simply "observing" from the teacher.
I'm super excited about the possibilities and I don't feel like it's a "cop-out" to use the technologies that our students are well-versed in and would enjoy in order to teach our curriculum. Of course, as mentioned in one of the videos, with the new technology comes new responsiblities: privacy, authorship, ethics, copyright, I think were a few. For example, I know very well the negative affect that texts and emails have had on spelling and capitalization everywhere. We must not only teach our curriculum, but also the correct usage of these technologies. It is at once exhilerating and daunting...did anyone else feel a bit unsettled when the video said ,"We are the machine?" or that the machine would be smarter than us one day? Whoa! Hopefully that will be one of the problems that a brilliant student of mine can solve. : )
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Hello fellow blogger,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that there are some teachers that do not hide in the past and want to accept the future. Technology is our reality and we need to ensure that future generation do know what and how to be appropriate in all of these new forms of technology - blogs - wikispaces - email - text.
"Are we asking our students to create and interact on a daily basis? "To solve problems that they didn't start"? Maybe, depending on how you teach, but in the end, they are really asked to just observe, aren't they?"
ReplyDeleteYou're posing some very thought provoking questions here. Are we asking them to create and interact daily? Depending on how you teach, which is exactly the crux of the issue. If we'd like our students to do more than observe and absorb, it's not enough to incorporate tools such as what we'll be exploring in this course. Can they be a means of facilitating creativity, conversation, and interactivity? Certainly! However, I firmly believe that we're at a point in education where a pedagogical "shift" needs to take place.
Why do we teach the way we do? Because, for most of us, that is how we were taught, and we utilize the methods we learned in our college classes. But are these the best instructional approaches these days? Not with this generation of students. We've got an ever expanding gap between how our students interact with technology versus how educators do. They're wired far differently, and until we accept that and begin to take advantage of their "wired" way of life, we're going to continue to shuffle kids through our classrooms instead of truly preparing them for the test (Yes, I said it, too) AND for the 21 century work environment.
"It just takes work and revisioning."
Said very eloquently (and in far fewer words than I just did). Is this going to happen overnight - no. Do we have to have our students interacting with technology on daily basis to achieve it - no. But will it require work? Absolutely, which I believe is both challenging and intimidating for some. We all get our heels dug into the dirt...then it rains, become mud, the sun come out and hardens it making it difficult to extract ourselves from our comfort zone.
Integrating technology to engage your students is certainly not a ‘cop out’. As an educator, you’re not only meeting the standards, you’re going beyond them, extending their learning in a way paper and pen cannot. Using Wikispaces as a means to create a student-originated study guide? Excellent! Put them in charge of their own learning. Let them question each other, interact, collaborate, and create. If you need a helping hand, let me know!
Great post!