Are we teachers doing what is best for our students, or what is more convenient for us? As a teacher or future educator, this question definately makes you stop and think. I do believe that for the most part, teachers do try and create lessons that will benefit the students as best we can, and to keep things interesting for them. However, as the Did You Know video pointed out, there is constantly new technology being created, and the way students learn is constantly changing. It can be very hard and even intimidating to try and keep up with and integrate all this new technology into our lesson plans. Perhaps as teachers we try to stick to what is convenient for us and not trying out things that we have not become familiar with in our classrooms yet.
As chapter one in our text explains: "In any society, educators have the ability to make an enormous positive contribution. Making such a contribution is a challenge, and teachers must willingly embrace new teaching and learning opportunities". There are so many new technologies available to us as teachers, that it would truly be impossible to integrate them all into our classroom on a daily basis, however I believe that it would be in our students' best interest to at least try using one or two of these methods in our teachings. Having been working alongside many teachers in Brevard County during my internships, I did notice that almost all of them have made an effort to include educational technologies such as Brain Pop! learning videos, computer review games and handheld response units used as a whole class to assess students' understanding of particular concepts. However, teachers are already put under so much stress by standards and standardized tests (particularly for reading and writing), principals and parents that trying out new technologies in the classroom is usually not a number one priority, even if these technologies would give students better learning opportunities.
In reading chapter one, I found it interesting to learn that "in education, the Wii console could be useful in helping students develop psychomotor skills and as a tool to energize students' cognitive domain of learning through interactivity". To be honest, I never would have thought to use video game consoles as a learning tool in my classroom, even though it may be in my students' best interest. With all of the standards we must meet on a daily basis, and so little time to get everything accomplished to help our students perform well on high-stakes tests, perhaps we are sticking to what is more convenient for us to get the job done efficiently and in a timely matter when we should be trying out new learning tools.
I enjoyed reading your response to the assignment. I too believe that teachers honestly try to do what is best for their students by creating activities to keep the students interested. As a teacher, who has been out of the classroom for awhile, I totally agree with your statement “It can be very hard and even intimidating to try and keep up with and integrate all this new technology into our lesson plans.” Technology has changed drastically in recent years, and I feel very intimidated about going back to the classroom and trying to incorporate all the new technology that teachers use today. After all, the only technology I had in the classroom was an overhead projector and Vis-à-vis markers. If we were lucky, we would one computer in our classroom!
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent point was the one you made about the Wii. I was just as surprised as you when reading about the Wii being used in the classrooms. I can tell you that we play the Wii as a family at our house, but I never crossed my mind about its use in a classroom. This is an interesting learning tool that might show some promise for education, and one that I’m going to have to think about how I could work it into my lesson plans in the future.
Finally, I have to agree with your point regarding the “distractions” that educators have teaching today’s students. Teaching to the standardized tests is one of those new distractions that teachers have been straddled with in the past few years. But, even though it might be easier and more convenient for us to stick to what we are comfortable with, I think it’s imperative that we find the time to help keep the students involved, even if we have to move outside of our comfort zone to accomplish this task.
Megan, your blog says it all. As a teacher or future educator, it really does make us stop and think of what is best for our students in this world of technology. I agree that it could be intimating for teachers because technology is always changing and being updated. I would see how that would be hard to get that into the classroom and able to teach it with that technology as well.
ReplyDeleteI have also observed teachers using BrainPop! at my internships and I have used it as well. It gets the students involved and interacting with the video. I think it does capture their attention and they are able to retain that information. While we are focusing on technology, we do have those standardized test that you had mentioned. I think that puts more stress on the student and the teacher. The teacher is teaching based on the test and the student is expected to learn that do to well on the test. I never would have imagined either about the Wii console serving as a learning tool in the classroom but I would try it.