I agree with the articles and think that using technology in a classroom is not only beneficial to the learning process, but beneficial to their future lives as well. For better or worse the world is ran on computers and other computer based technology and those who can’t use them are at a distinct disadvantage. I know from my attempts to procure employment after college ended, every job had something to with some form of computer based technology or another. Knowing this I will do my best to use technology in the classroom, and if access is limited I will do my best to improvise.
In a classroom where outside access to technology is limited, I will still use technology as best as possible, and figure out ways to give students more access. I can be available after school to allow students more time on the computer to do their assignments, I can locate public libraries where there is computer access, and there are other steps you can take. It might seem unfair to use technology as much as possible when some of the students to not have access to it, but not doing so would slow their development and hurt them in the future.
If a student is disadvantage and cannot have them time after school or access to a public library, using technology may be a bit trickier. Trickier but not impossible, I can take steps as a teacher to even help these students to use the technology. One example I can come up with off the top of my head is give those students more time to do technology based assignments, so that sometime in their other classes or free periods they can use that technology to get it done.
If a student does not know how to use technology it will be a detriment to their ability to procure meaningful employment in the future. So if I do not do my best to make sure kids can adequately use technology I will be doing them a disservice. As a teacher our goal is to teach our content to mastery level, but in reality our job is mold young people into adults who can conquer their part of the world upon leaving the classroom. With that in mind not using technology or not teaching them to use it, I won’t be preparing them to the best of my ability for the world that awaits them outside of that school.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
an ode to powerpoint
I do personally like PowerPoint as a means for presenting lessons, because I am for anything that gives someone something else to look at then my flabby self. In a classroom students tend to look all around when someone is talking to them, sure they try to look at the person speaking as much as possible but it just gets awkward after a while, and power point fixes that. Power point gives the students something to fixate their gaze on, and as a teacher if you put useful information on that, it helps concrete the learning process. So as long as the teacher doesn’t make the power point to busy or distracting it can be a very useful product to have in addition to your lecture. Also it gives the students a great opportunity to write down notes, because usually the students will copy everything down that you present to them in a power point, it’s kind of like magic. So if parts of your lecture are beneficial to them passing the test, put that info on the power point because students will write it down like the drones they sometimes are (drones in a good way, not a bad way). The only con of power point is if a teacher uses it instead of actually lecturing. So if they put all the info on a power point and don’t really explain it, it’s just a gigantic waste of time. So to sum up this seemingly long winded point, power point is very useful in a classroom if you do it correctly.
As for the presentations that were done in the classroom, I feel that they were done very well. For the most part people didn’t make their power points to busy and used them to enhance the information that they were conveying within their presentations. The biggest fundamental flaw that people make when using power point is putting too much on a slide, and for the most part our class didn’t fall into that trap. I really liked the videos and interesting pictures that people put in their slides, I really never thought about making the power point entertaining as well thought provoking, and bravo to my fellow students who did that. For example Maya’s presentation was very good because she used a experience she had, coupled with amazing pictures to teach Spanish, and oddly enough I now know how to say monkey in Spanish, and if a monkey is ever trying to kill me in a Spanish speaking country I can scream for help, so thank you Maya. My point is that the interesting pictures helped cement the Spanish words she was trying to teach, and because they were pictures she personally took, I was a 1000x more interested in them, than I would have been if she just got them off Google. As for Rachel she really did teach me what her presentation was about (even though I cannot remember the fancy science word she used), because her pictures and videos were entertaining as well as thought provoking in regards to her presentation.
In our class I was completely interested in all of the presentations because these people are my colleagues and I am pretty sure they can show me a presentation on grass growing and I will be as engaged like I was watching Star Wars for the first time. As for my fellow classmates (and believe me I throw myself into this group) I think we need to realize that our students won’t be that engaged, I am not saying there were some presentations that were boring, but doing something to keep a 16 year old kid whose only real interest in the world is video games and naughty parts engaged will definitely help. A good example of this is what Chelsea did, her presentation might not have been that interesting to that 16 year old kid (for me I thought it was awesome and I am already making my own olive oil) but the fact she gave us examples of the food, would have definitely made that kid a lot more interested. Power point presentations coupled with a lecture is probably pretty boring to young kids, but if we as a teacher can do something to perk up interest during it would be a great help to those students. I think best example of not doing this was my presentation, I presented a lot of pretty boring facts and only did something funny at the end, I really should have tried to sprinkle in some humor or something that would have woken up the students in the middle. That would be my only suggestion to my colleagues on their power points, but again I do really feel they all did a really good job.
I touched briefly on what I would have different in my own power point in the last paragraph. But even more than doing something to keep waning eyes awake, I think I would have found a way to convey the same information in a more entertaining way. I probably would have sprinkled more pictures, maybe a little less info on each slide, and used more metaphors to convey the same info. My colleagues paid attention to the whole thing, but their respectful adults, but I am not sure a 16 year old kid would have given me that same luxury with my power point; I sure as hell wouldn’t have when I was 16. My topic was inherently boring, and will always be a little bit boring, it is my challenge as a teacher to find a way to convey that information in a way that will make students engaged and listening, I believe I failed horribly at that. I would have put a video in the middle to break up the monotony of just constant information, I might have shown a picture of Nancy Pelosi next to the crypt keeper from Tales from the Crypt to show students the similarities between the two (I really wouldn’t have done that, I just like to bring up the fact she looks like him as much as possible), I would have done something that could have entertained my students. I failed at keeping my non existing students engaged, and that’s what I need to work on for next time.
So in conclusion, I must say I do like power point as a means of presenting lessons. My colleagues showed me great ways to do it, and that I did not realize could be done. So I suck at power points but hopefully this class and my colleagues presentations will show me what I can improve upon, or I’ll just become the boring teacher whose students use the class as a nap period.
As for the presentations that were done in the classroom, I feel that they were done very well. For the most part people didn’t make their power points to busy and used them to enhance the information that they were conveying within their presentations. The biggest fundamental flaw that people make when using power point is putting too much on a slide, and for the most part our class didn’t fall into that trap. I really liked the videos and interesting pictures that people put in their slides, I really never thought about making the power point entertaining as well thought provoking, and bravo to my fellow students who did that. For example Maya’s presentation was very good because she used a experience she had, coupled with amazing pictures to teach Spanish, and oddly enough I now know how to say monkey in Spanish, and if a monkey is ever trying to kill me in a Spanish speaking country I can scream for help, so thank you Maya. My point is that the interesting pictures helped cement the Spanish words she was trying to teach, and because they were pictures she personally took, I was a 1000x more interested in them, than I would have been if she just got them off Google. As for Rachel she really did teach me what her presentation was about (even though I cannot remember the fancy science word she used), because her pictures and videos were entertaining as well as thought provoking in regards to her presentation.
In our class I was completely interested in all of the presentations because these people are my colleagues and I am pretty sure they can show me a presentation on grass growing and I will be as engaged like I was watching Star Wars for the first time. As for my fellow classmates (and believe me I throw myself into this group) I think we need to realize that our students won’t be that engaged, I am not saying there were some presentations that were boring, but doing something to keep a 16 year old kid whose only real interest in the world is video games and naughty parts engaged will definitely help. A good example of this is what Chelsea did, her presentation might not have been that interesting to that 16 year old kid (for me I thought it was awesome and I am already making my own olive oil) but the fact she gave us examples of the food, would have definitely made that kid a lot more interested. Power point presentations coupled with a lecture is probably pretty boring to young kids, but if we as a teacher can do something to perk up interest during it would be a great help to those students. I think best example of not doing this was my presentation, I presented a lot of pretty boring facts and only did something funny at the end, I really should have tried to sprinkle in some humor or something that would have woken up the students in the middle. That would be my only suggestion to my colleagues on their power points, but again I do really feel they all did a really good job.
I touched briefly on what I would have different in my own power point in the last paragraph. But even more than doing something to keep waning eyes awake, I think I would have found a way to convey the same information in a more entertaining way. I probably would have sprinkled more pictures, maybe a little less info on each slide, and used more metaphors to convey the same info. My colleagues paid attention to the whole thing, but their respectful adults, but I am not sure a 16 year old kid would have given me that same luxury with my power point; I sure as hell wouldn’t have when I was 16. My topic was inherently boring, and will always be a little bit boring, it is my challenge as a teacher to find a way to convey that information in a way that will make students engaged and listening, I believe I failed horribly at that. I would have put a video in the middle to break up the monotony of just constant information, I might have shown a picture of Nancy Pelosi next to the crypt keeper from Tales from the Crypt to show students the similarities between the two (I really wouldn’t have done that, I just like to bring up the fact she looks like him as much as possible), I would have done something that could have entertained my students. I failed at keeping my non existing students engaged, and that’s what I need to work on for next time.
So in conclusion, I must say I do like power point as a means of presenting lessons. My colleagues showed me great ways to do it, and that I did not realize could be done. So I suck at power points but hopefully this class and my colleagues presentations will show me what I can improve upon, or I’ll just become the boring teacher whose students use the class as a nap period.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Is texting really the root of all evil when it comes to writing?
Is chat-speak destroying English? First of can we please find a different name for this new language then chat-speak, because that word makes me want to destroy the English language. I think I have to say no that it is not destroying the English language, because I really do think we as Teachers should be able to teach students the difference between the two. I agree with Greg Monfils when he wrote “They know the difference indeed, I’d go as far as to say that their command of chat-speak is directly proportional to their awareness of that the fashion of chat-speak subverts traditional rules of written English” (Monfils, 2007). Students know that the language that they are using in texts and other forms of electronic communication is not the way English is supposed to be written, but they do it for convenience. A standard text message is 160 characters and to get a full thought into a 160 characters one has to use shortened abbreviations of words; it’s not a direct assault on the written language, it is just a mode of fitting everything you want to say in a shortened space.
Above all lets relax when it comes to chat-speak, because shouldn’t we be encouraged that our students are actively participating in reading and writing? Isn’t it a fear of teachers that students will lose these skills all together, but now were complaining because they are doing them but just doing them in a non-conventional way. When I was a kid I used slang that was different from my parents and teachers, and of course I put that slang into my papers as much as possible, what’s the difference between that and chat-speak (I seriously cannot stress enough how much I hate that word)? Mofils explains it in a different way when he wrote “A teenage experimenting with a sprinkling of profanities in their conversation with peers will not suddenly forget how to converse with their grandmother” (Mofils, 2007). Students know the difference between chat-speak (errrrrr) and the kings English, please give them the benefit of the doubt. I think the only person who is afraid of chat-speak destroying the English language is lazy teachers who don’t feel the desire to stress the importance of learning how to correctly use the language, and that is shame on them. Don’t blame the technology or the new ways students use to communicate with it, blame the teacher who isn’t skilled enough to teach the kings English.
One last point when it comes to chat-speak, is it really what’s destroying the English language or more importantly the students ability to write it? I think the biggest culprit to destroying students ability to use the language is the program I am using right now to write this blog, Microsoft Word, oh yes I’m coming after you Bill Gates. I’ve been using Microsoft word since easily the third grade, and it and its stupid spell check has hindered my progress with the language at least a 100x more than texting and instant messaging ever has. I literally cannot spell to save my life, I just can’t do it, and there are some words that I misspell every time. But with spell check I can just fix it with a click of a mouse, so there is really no reason for me to ever learn how to properly spell these words. Microsoft Word even fixes grammar now (it may have in the past but seriously who remembers the third grade, or really anything that happened before college), so now I don’t even have to know how to correctly use a semi colon, or the correct there, because lovely old Word will fix it for me. So there teachers lay off the chat-speak (hold on I have to bang my head against the desk a few times, because I hate that word with such a passion), because your making students type every assignment in Microsoft word is killing their command of the language more than that language I refuse to type one more time. Just for giggles I waited till the end to use spell check for this blog and there were over a 50 words misspelled and ton of grammar issues, so there I proved my point, lay off the language that shall not be named and blame Bill Gates for hiring some MAT grad to create the spell check in Word.
Above all lets relax when it comes to chat-speak, because shouldn’t we be encouraged that our students are actively participating in reading and writing? Isn’t it a fear of teachers that students will lose these skills all together, but now were complaining because they are doing them but just doing them in a non-conventional way. When I was a kid I used slang that was different from my parents and teachers, and of course I put that slang into my papers as much as possible, what’s the difference between that and chat-speak (I seriously cannot stress enough how much I hate that word)? Mofils explains it in a different way when he wrote “A teenage experimenting with a sprinkling of profanities in their conversation with peers will not suddenly forget how to converse with their grandmother” (Mofils, 2007). Students know the difference between chat-speak (errrrrr) and the kings English, please give them the benefit of the doubt. I think the only person who is afraid of chat-speak destroying the English language is lazy teachers who don’t feel the desire to stress the importance of learning how to correctly use the language, and that is shame on them. Don’t blame the technology or the new ways students use to communicate with it, blame the teacher who isn’t skilled enough to teach the kings English.
One last point when it comes to chat-speak, is it really what’s destroying the English language or more importantly the students ability to write it? I think the biggest culprit to destroying students ability to use the language is the program I am using right now to write this blog, Microsoft Word, oh yes I’m coming after you Bill Gates. I’ve been using Microsoft word since easily the third grade, and it and its stupid spell check has hindered my progress with the language at least a 100x more than texting and instant messaging ever has. I literally cannot spell to save my life, I just can’t do it, and there are some words that I misspell every time. But with spell check I can just fix it with a click of a mouse, so there is really no reason for me to ever learn how to properly spell these words. Microsoft Word even fixes grammar now (it may have in the past but seriously who remembers the third grade, or really anything that happened before college), so now I don’t even have to know how to correctly use a semi colon, or the correct there, because lovely old Word will fix it for me. So there teachers lay off the chat-speak (hold on I have to bang my head against the desk a few times, because I hate that word with such a passion), because your making students type every assignment in Microsoft word is killing their command of the language more than that language I refuse to type one more time. Just for giggles I waited till the end to use spell check for this blog and there were over a 50 words misspelled and ton of grammar issues, so there I proved my point, lay off the language that shall not be named and blame Bill Gates for hiring some MAT grad to create the spell check in Word.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Cyber Bullying
Cyber bullying is when a person or person’s bully a person over the internet or with a cell phone via text messaging. It is usually done on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Personally I do not have any experience with this, Social Networking sites didn’t really exist in my day. In my day people were forced to bully someone face to face, there weren’t allowed to hide behind anonymity. My only experience with is comes from working in a middle school and hearing students talk about cyber bullying they have experienced in a forum that was held after a assembly designed by the local police department , that was designed to show students the harm of cyber bullying. The students I heard talk about it seemed deeply affected by their experiences with the phenomenon, and sometimes it was heart breaking.
The legal problems that arise with cyber-bullying are it is done with behind a computer screen. When I was growing up a bully was forced to bully in the public spectrum, granted they never really did it openly, but they were still faced with the idea that the person they were bullying could eventually stand up for themselves. But the legal issues were different because someone could physically see the bullying happening as well as the results. Cyber bullying is done usually with anonymity and it is hard to prove who is doing it, or the effects were done because of the cyber bullying. If you look at the Missouri case where the parents bullied a kid to the point she committed suicide, they were not held liable in a court of law. Should schools regulate it and punish those found guilty of cyber bullying? Absolutely they should, but the problem is how would they go about it, and how would they prove that the individual was actually the one doing the cyber bullying? The only way a school would know if someone is being cyber bullied is if the student told someone it was happening, and how often does a person who is guilty of being bullied stand up and admits that is happening? People who are bullied are usually made fearful of reprisal if they tell, and like most physical or mental crimes they go unreported. If it is happening between two students in your school the school should step up and do something, but they are entering murky legal grounds because it will be near impossible to prove.
I am not sure how to implement a plan in my classroom to stop cyber bullying. I like to say I would create a pre-emptive plan that would stop it before it happens, but I have absolutely no idea how I would go about it. The best I can do as a teacher is tell the students the dangers of engaging in cyber bullying and the potential legal consequences if they are actually caught. As for it happening in my classroom, I unfortunately have to say anything that will be done will happen after the fact. If a problem of cyber bullying arises I will deal with it individually, as well as inform the whole class that sort of behavior is unacceptable and outright dangerous. I would hope that if I create a public forum on the internet for my students that they will regulate it themselves and understand that they should not bully someone on there, but if it does happen I will step in and stop it as much as possible.
The legal problems that arise with cyber-bullying are it is done with behind a computer screen. When I was growing up a bully was forced to bully in the public spectrum, granted they never really did it openly, but they were still faced with the idea that the person they were bullying could eventually stand up for themselves. But the legal issues were different because someone could physically see the bullying happening as well as the results. Cyber bullying is done usually with anonymity and it is hard to prove who is doing it, or the effects were done because of the cyber bullying. If you look at the Missouri case where the parents bullied a kid to the point she committed suicide, they were not held liable in a court of law. Should schools regulate it and punish those found guilty of cyber bullying? Absolutely they should, but the problem is how would they go about it, and how would they prove that the individual was actually the one doing the cyber bullying? The only way a school would know if someone is being cyber bullied is if the student told someone it was happening, and how often does a person who is guilty of being bullied stand up and admits that is happening? People who are bullied are usually made fearful of reprisal if they tell, and like most physical or mental crimes they go unreported. If it is happening between two students in your school the school should step up and do something, but they are entering murky legal grounds because it will be near impossible to prove.
I am not sure how to implement a plan in my classroom to stop cyber bullying. I like to say I would create a pre-emptive plan that would stop it before it happens, but I have absolutely no idea how I would go about it. The best I can do as a teacher is tell the students the dangers of engaging in cyber bullying and the potential legal consequences if they are actually caught. As for it happening in my classroom, I unfortunately have to say anything that will be done will happen after the fact. If a problem of cyber bullying arises I will deal with it individually, as well as inform the whole class that sort of behavior is unacceptable and outright dangerous. I would hope that if I create a public forum on the internet for my students that they will regulate it themselves and understand that they should not bully someone on there, but if it does happen I will step in and stop it as much as possible.
As for finding me on the internet goes, good luck future studnets
When I did the Google and pipl search for my name I was tempted for the first time in my life to thank my parents for giving me such a generic and common name. I found absolutely nothing about me personally, I found links to Bryan Smith, but none of them were me or anything I am affiliated with. When I used my handles, just my email addresses without the @ and the stuff after them, all I found was a YouTube profile with nothing on it, and photo bucket account with nothing on it, and to be honest I am not exactly sure if those were mine, I can’t remember if I have a You tube profile or not. There were links with those handles with content on them but again nothing of them actually had anything to do with me, it was just a coincidence. So for anyone who wants to use Google or other search engines to find dirt on me good luck, they won’t actually help you.
The only thing I would change when it came to finding information about me on the internet is finding a handle that’s original enough so if I ever put something on the internet that needs to be found students or people can find it. I do have a Facebook profile but it is set to the highest privacy settings there is, and on top of that there is nothing on it that students wouldn’t be allowed to see. There are a few pictures on there that might be considered a little questionable, but unless you are my friend you cannot see them.
I am not sure how I feel about teachers being help to higher standards within a community; I see both sides of the issue as a community member and future teacher. I see nothing wrong with teachers living the same lives outside of their job that everyone else is entitled too, but I also see how parents would be uncomfortable having their children being educated by someone that they know is not of the highest morale character. I guess teachers should come to a compromise, live the way you want too, but live in a different community than you teach. People are always going to judge teachers differently because in some ways people are entrusting you to help raise their children, and because of that they are going to hold you to a higher moral character, not unlike someone holds a priest in regards to character. In regards to social networking, you can also come to a compromise, Facebook has amazing privacy settings so you can have a personal one where you post anything you want (just make sure your main profile picture is appropriate), and then create a another profile that your students can have access to, but you only put things that you want your students to see on it.
As for teachers getting in trouble with their speech, it’s all a matter of compromise as well. You can say whatever you want about your job, co-workers, students or school, but control who you say it around. Don’t start bashing your all those things in the middle of your classroom, because if you do you should be fired. If you have a public social network profile that anyone can read and you say things that are in appropriate that is your fault as a teacher, because you can take steps to monitor who can read or hear what you say about your job. If you read the article the teachers who got in trouble for writing or saying things, said them in public forums, and that’s where they want wrong. When I’m with my friends I say a lot of things that would get me in trouble if people heard them, but I don’t because I say them around people I trust. Teachers for better or worse are held to higher standards than most people, but it is something that they should be aware of and can take steps to ensure to make inappropriate things public information.
Some of the stories of teachers getting fired for stuff found on the internet were a little ridiculous though. The woman who got fired because she posed naked for art shouldn’t have been fired, because teachers should be allowed to have a social life. That women did nothing wrong, she posed for art, which is protected by the first amendment to the constitution. I would understand if she was fired for having nude pictures posted on the internet that were in a sexual manner, but those were art and I think that was ridiculous. Still though she could have taken steps to make sure that those pictures were not able to be linked to her, she did make a mistake there, but in her defense she probably wasn’t thinking about it, because it was for an art project.
When I am teacher I will protect myself from the community holding me to higher standards by being smart. I won’t post anything on the internet that anyone can see that is inappropriate for my students to see. I won’t go to bars and get absolutely hammered inside the community where I teach at. I won’t publicly say anything or post in on the internet that can get me fired. Is it fair? Probably not, but I am aware that I will be held to higher moral standards than everyone else, and I will take steps to make sure that people don’t perceive me breaking there superimposed codes.
The only thing I would change when it came to finding information about me on the internet is finding a handle that’s original enough so if I ever put something on the internet that needs to be found students or people can find it. I do have a Facebook profile but it is set to the highest privacy settings there is, and on top of that there is nothing on it that students wouldn’t be allowed to see. There are a few pictures on there that might be considered a little questionable, but unless you are my friend you cannot see them.
I am not sure how I feel about teachers being help to higher standards within a community; I see both sides of the issue as a community member and future teacher. I see nothing wrong with teachers living the same lives outside of their job that everyone else is entitled too, but I also see how parents would be uncomfortable having their children being educated by someone that they know is not of the highest morale character. I guess teachers should come to a compromise, live the way you want too, but live in a different community than you teach. People are always going to judge teachers differently because in some ways people are entrusting you to help raise their children, and because of that they are going to hold you to a higher moral character, not unlike someone holds a priest in regards to character. In regards to social networking, you can also come to a compromise, Facebook has amazing privacy settings so you can have a personal one where you post anything you want (just make sure your main profile picture is appropriate), and then create a another profile that your students can have access to, but you only put things that you want your students to see on it.
As for teachers getting in trouble with their speech, it’s all a matter of compromise as well. You can say whatever you want about your job, co-workers, students or school, but control who you say it around. Don’t start bashing your all those things in the middle of your classroom, because if you do you should be fired. If you have a public social network profile that anyone can read and you say things that are in appropriate that is your fault as a teacher, because you can take steps to monitor who can read or hear what you say about your job. If you read the article the teachers who got in trouble for writing or saying things, said them in public forums, and that’s where they want wrong. When I’m with my friends I say a lot of things that would get me in trouble if people heard them, but I don’t because I say them around people I trust. Teachers for better or worse are held to higher standards than most people, but it is something that they should be aware of and can take steps to ensure to make inappropriate things public information.
Some of the stories of teachers getting fired for stuff found on the internet were a little ridiculous though. The woman who got fired because she posed naked for art shouldn’t have been fired, because teachers should be allowed to have a social life. That women did nothing wrong, she posed for art, which is protected by the first amendment to the constitution. I would understand if she was fired for having nude pictures posted on the internet that were in a sexual manner, but those were art and I think that was ridiculous. Still though she could have taken steps to make sure that those pictures were not able to be linked to her, she did make a mistake there, but in her defense she probably wasn’t thinking about it, because it was for an art project.
When I am teacher I will protect myself from the community holding me to higher standards by being smart. I won’t post anything on the internet that anyone can see that is inappropriate for my students to see. I won’t go to bars and get absolutely hammered inside the community where I teach at. I won’t publicly say anything or post in on the internet that can get me fired. Is it fair? Probably not, but I am aware that I will be held to higher moral standards than everyone else, and I will take steps to make sure that people don’t perceive me breaking there superimposed codes.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Digital Native, Digital Immigrants
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
When reading the articles and watching the video on Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, I honestly could not decide which of the two I am. Granted I have played a ton of video games in my life, but I didn’t start playing video games till after high school, because my parents wouldn’t allow me too or buy me a video game console (although I did play at friends houses and stuff so I wasn’t oblivious to how the technology worked). As for computers, I’ve been using them since the first grade, due to a motor skills disability I was taught to type in the first grade (in 1990 that wasn’t the norm as it is today), but even with that long experience on the computer I cannot stand reading things for a long period of time on a computer screen. Sure I’ve watched a ton of television and movies in my day, a lot more that I would like to admit, but I still prefer to play outside, or physically hang out with my friends.
So am I a digital native, or a digital immigrant, is it possible to be both? I know how to use technology and am well versed in their languages and processes, but I love the old ways. When doing research for a paper I use Wikipedia like everyone else, but I still open a book and do it that way. I like to use both methods, I enjoy both worlds, and I tend to walk the line between immigrant and native. I can personally see how someone would learn by playing a video or computer game in things like math and science, but personally I prefer doing it the old way. I am one of the students that Prensky describe that “have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (Prensky, 2001). But that isn’t how I would define myself, I can use the technology, but I prefer a world without it, does this make me extremely qualified to teach the natives though?
As a learner in my day, I learned in both ways, native and immigrant. For historical purposes I’ve played games like Civilization, Age of Empires, and Oregon Trail, and they did help me understand history and geography; but I still learned the old way with books and lectures. In math I’ve played the computer games where u have to solve math problems to move on to the next step and have had my arithmetic skills enhanced, but I’ve also learned the immigrant way. Same with science and many other subjects, I’ve used the technology and I’ve used the immigrant way, and I have learned and excelled at both. In college I added a new repertoire to my learning’s and that was computer science, I had literally no idea how these things I’d been using since I was really little worked, and in those classes I fixed that. I learned how a computer works, as well as how to use them effectively, and design WebPages. I believe these classes have set me up pretty well to reach out to the digital natives, because I am not sure I am truly one of them.
For the last year I have worked as an I.A and I have seen teachers use technology to reach students, and I realized that for those students it just worked with them. Students were turning in their assignments on-line, listening to pod casts, playing games, using emails, and using Google to locate information. These students I have interacted with used technology more than I have would ever dreamed they would have in the classroom, and as Prensky pointed it “Children raised with the computer ―think differently from the rest of us” (Prensky, 2001), and it was very apparent. But it worked, the students interacted and retained the knowledge that they were learning digitally. They knew more about computers and their programs than I did, and I’ve been using them longer than they had been alive; but they thought differently because they were fully submerged in this world, while I had one foot in and one foot out. The teachers that I worked with understood this and didn’t fight it, they learned to embrace it, and use it as teaching tool.
These articles as well as my own experiences in school, has completely opened my eyes to using technology in the classroom. When I was a student I always found it rather funny when a teacher would try to relate to my world, but I know they felt it was the best way to get through to me, and in this day and age the way to do is through technology. As Prensky said in his article “Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (Prensky, 2001), and as a teacher I plan to embrace that fact. I believe because I am a person who fully understands both worlds, native and immigrant, I will be able to use technology adequately while still teaching students how to do things the old fashion way. I will try to use as much media as possible, but as a social studies professor it will be impossible to completely throw out the immigrant world. Students will still need to be able to read books and newspapers, because it is important for historical purposes to feel how things were done in the period they are studying. But for media it will be easy to use movies, games, internet, podcasts, etc. in the classroom. I believe that the best way to teach my subject will be to have my students walk the line between the native and immigrant as much as possible.
When reading the articles and watching the video on Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, I honestly could not decide which of the two I am. Granted I have played a ton of video games in my life, but I didn’t start playing video games till after high school, because my parents wouldn’t allow me too or buy me a video game console (although I did play at friends houses and stuff so I wasn’t oblivious to how the technology worked). As for computers, I’ve been using them since the first grade, due to a motor skills disability I was taught to type in the first grade (in 1990 that wasn’t the norm as it is today), but even with that long experience on the computer I cannot stand reading things for a long period of time on a computer screen. Sure I’ve watched a ton of television and movies in my day, a lot more that I would like to admit, but I still prefer to play outside, or physically hang out with my friends.
So am I a digital native, or a digital immigrant, is it possible to be both? I know how to use technology and am well versed in their languages and processes, but I love the old ways. When doing research for a paper I use Wikipedia like everyone else, but I still open a book and do it that way. I like to use both methods, I enjoy both worlds, and I tend to walk the line between immigrant and native. I can personally see how someone would learn by playing a video or computer game in things like math and science, but personally I prefer doing it the old way. I am one of the students that Prensky describe that “have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (Prensky, 2001). But that isn’t how I would define myself, I can use the technology, but I prefer a world without it, does this make me extremely qualified to teach the natives though?
As a learner in my day, I learned in both ways, native and immigrant. For historical purposes I’ve played games like Civilization, Age of Empires, and Oregon Trail, and they did help me understand history and geography; but I still learned the old way with books and lectures. In math I’ve played the computer games where u have to solve math problems to move on to the next step and have had my arithmetic skills enhanced, but I’ve also learned the immigrant way. Same with science and many other subjects, I’ve used the technology and I’ve used the immigrant way, and I have learned and excelled at both. In college I added a new repertoire to my learning’s and that was computer science, I had literally no idea how these things I’d been using since I was really little worked, and in those classes I fixed that. I learned how a computer works, as well as how to use them effectively, and design WebPages. I believe these classes have set me up pretty well to reach out to the digital natives, because I am not sure I am truly one of them.
For the last year I have worked as an I.A and I have seen teachers use technology to reach students, and I realized that for those students it just worked with them. Students were turning in their assignments on-line, listening to pod casts, playing games, using emails, and using Google to locate information. These students I have interacted with used technology more than I have would ever dreamed they would have in the classroom, and as Prensky pointed it “Children raised with the computer ―think differently from the rest of us” (Prensky, 2001), and it was very apparent. But it worked, the students interacted and retained the knowledge that they were learning digitally. They knew more about computers and their programs than I did, and I’ve been using them longer than they had been alive; but they thought differently because they were fully submerged in this world, while I had one foot in and one foot out. The teachers that I worked with understood this and didn’t fight it, they learned to embrace it, and use it as teaching tool.
These articles as well as my own experiences in school, has completely opened my eyes to using technology in the classroom. When I was a student I always found it rather funny when a teacher would try to relate to my world, but I know they felt it was the best way to get through to me, and in this day and age the way to do is through technology. As Prensky said in his article “Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (Prensky, 2001), and as a teacher I plan to embrace that fact. I believe because I am a person who fully understands both worlds, native and immigrant, I will be able to use technology adequately while still teaching students how to do things the old fashion way. I will try to use as much media as possible, but as a social studies professor it will be impossible to completely throw out the immigrant world. Students will still need to be able to read books and newspapers, because it is important for historical purposes to feel how things were done in the period they are studying. But for media it will be easy to use movies, games, internet, podcasts, etc. in the classroom. I believe that the best way to teach my subject will be to have my students walk the line between the native and immigrant as much as possible.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Introduction
My name is Bryan Smith, I am 25 years old and live in Vancouver, WA. I am relatively recent graduate of Western Oregon University where I received a bachelors of science in History with a minor in Social Science. I am currently attending Concordia University where I am attempting to receive a Masters of Arts in Teaching. This blog is assignment that is part of that program.
Part of this assignment is to tell y'all what my favorite animal is (or the one I find the most entertaining to share with people). The answer that I am giving you is the duck-billed platypus. I know you are asking why, and I don't really have a good answer to give you. The best one I can come up with is this, Kevin Smith said in the movie dogma "the duck-billed platypus shows that god has a sense of humor", sounds like a good reason to me. Well there it is, you know who I am, or at least my name and where I am; and y'all know that I like the duck-billed platypus.
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