After reading the article about the integration of technology in classrooms, many concerns popped into my head about the level of safety which would exist with the amount of access to the internet. Although I do not have children of my own, I would be very wary as a parent to allow my child, or as a teacher, my student to have access to the internet and even more so access to social media because of the dangers of not knowing who is on the other side of the screen responding to the child's dialogue.The article placed a great amount of emphasis on portraying technology as a connection to the rest of the world, which has both negative and positive consequences. I agree that it is important to understand different perspectives which people from all over the world may have, yet I think that as much as we would like to treat children as little adults, these different outlooks might be too much for them to understand. The responsibility of the teacher would not only be to show them how to respectively accept various outlooks expressed to them, but to also help the student think critically about the information being presented. I can personally think back on lessons which I have learned through my academic career that were best understood when they were postponed to be taught as a young adult, because they were understood better at a more mature age. An example of this would be the truth about the historical interactions between the first pilgrims and the Native Americans; as an elementary school student, I could not have fully understood the violent acts against the Native Americans, but as a Junior in High School, the information was fully grasped due to a more mature age when the information was presented.
There was a point which was made in the article about Papert pointing out that children will be able to emerge themselves into lessons more quickly when the lesson is on a topic which the student is already interested in. This observation is logical and one which I would have no trouble agreeing with; however, I think that instead of using technology to engage students in lessons which they already have no trouble getting into, that technology be used to engage students in lessons which are not as appealing to them. The hype around using computers already drives younger children towards wanting to use them, however if you combine the pleasurable activity of using a computer with the not so pleasurable task of learning how to multiply, then the outcome of using technology as a learning tool might be more useful for a student.
One of the benefits of using technology as a method of teaching which was mentioned in the article was that there is "frequent interaction and feedback" which I can agree with. Constant feedback helps students know whether or not they are successfully grasping new concepts, and with a classroom of 20 or more students, it can become difficult for teachers to give an even amount of feedback to everyone. Programs on computers would therefore be helpful to both students and teachers by guiding students through lessons which they might need more help with and provide teachers with feedback on their student's progress and give them a general idea on which lessons might need to be readdressed.
I am all for using some technological devices as a means for learning, however I think that as future educators, we should not only teach our students how to use the most efficient tools, but to use any kind of technology responsibly and to have an equal amount of respect for online users.
“After reading the article about the integration of technology in classrooms, many concerns popped into my head about the level of safety which would exist with the amount of access to the internet.” – Elizabeth Mesillas
ReplyDeleteI grew up where all this technology that exist today basically did not exist. The closes we had to a computer were a handheld radio walky-talky or typewriter. No one, as far as I knew, had any educational vision of transforming the local classroom into a global classroom, within seconds.
Could you imagine a young educator saying to her/his students: Ok class! Lets turn on the computers so we can download as much information as possible about the subject matter we are studying into our zip-drive/and or head. Afterwards, each and every one of us will have a chance to reflex on the information according to our own perspective.?
Elizabeth, you made a good point saying there is a lot of good and bad information floating around on the internet that could be extremely hazardous for child consumption. You are also right about a parent or teacher wanting to be concern about how the information will be censored from children. I think that is a good legitimate complaint.
You raise interesting points about some potential downfalls for the prevalence of technology in classrooms. I hadn't considered whether or not parents would insist on monitoring their children's internet usage. Too often, we see the technology as only good, but it's cause for concern among some parents. How could schools work to safeguard young children who aren't mature enough for some subjects? Better yet, how could they do so without outright censoring the internet? You're right that teaching respect and responsibility is key. I agree with your comment that the main benefit is the frequent interaction and feedback. Students need the feedback for their work and teachers can get feedback for their lesson plans from students using different technologies. I look forward to the frequent feedback and information exchange between myself and students.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I love that you brought up the issue of how much children would be exposed to by having access to the Internet in the classroom. I think that this issue really is something that should be further explored. In my opinion it depends on the age group you are working with to decide what they have and do not have access to. I do not think that using technology in a class is bad and that children are seen as little adults, but I do think teachers need to be educated on what is and is not okay to use. In most of the schools that I observed computers were available but children were not taking advantage of them. They were allowed to use the computers for typing an essay, testing, or working on a school program already loaded into the computer. This was all younger ages so it did not seem to be an issue because they knew a consequence would occur if they were to do something else. At the high school I worked at iPads were used to biology and chemistry labs. This might be seem as a distraction from some but when it is monitored it really seemed to make a lesson so much easier to teach. Students always had a visual aid in front of them, they had resources for when they were unsure, and they were able to go at a comfortable pace. I agree that technology should be used to emerge students into lessons that are not as appealing to them. This will make the topic seem more enjoyable from the get go.
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