So I'm scrolling through these two blogs, and I'm thinking about how my first reaction is that what they comment on is so far from what I do. Part of this is because, I think, much of the material is geared toward younger students and does not immediately address a high school English class (remember, Luddite and all that). At the same time I know how others, Ryan Martin for instance, has incorporated tech into his classes,skyping to be specific. And yes, I blog. But still, I wasn't drawn to what I was reading and skimming.
This got me though. The blogger talks about the real life application of technology in Dan Woodhouse's case, and this is what I responded to. I am not convinced that tech helps my students -- and me -- as much as someone like Bob October or September claims it does. His presentation in my mind proved it -- a whole bunch of people looking at laptops..and if you didn't have one, as I don't, well, you're just an out-of-time stick-in-the-mud and the world is leaving you behind in its rear view mirror. Which it probably is in my case, and I'm not losing much sleep over it -- though a flat screen television might make me feel better about being left behind.
But in the case of Dan, tech makes sense. As it does for students for whom the normal ways of teaching don't make sense. At the same time, as I confront students more and more who cannot spell and haven't figured out that pressing spellcheck is not the end all answer, I come back to my original worries. Kids can zip use tech in ways I can't and never will, but has that made them better writers or better readers? Better thinkers? Aware of their own history? More able to understand people not like them?
Of course, an argument can be made, and has been made, that technology has made us all less different than we used to be. Unless you're the child starving in Darfur or holding a gun in the Sudanese army, funded by the way by the US (which along with Somalia is the only country to not sign off on a UNICEF declaration against the use of child soldiers). Of course, those child soldiers might have learned some moves from a a bootlegged Bruce Willis DVD...and maybe if they have access to You Tube, can become Justin Beiber fans.
But that's not Dan Woodhouse's story, Which is a good one.
Thanks for sharing the story of Dan Woodhouse - very interesting. I think every teacher needs to decide what role technology will play in his or her classroom - for it's going to look very different in your classroom vs. a math classroom or an elem. classroom. Whether we like it or not, however, I think technology will play SOME role. It's my personal belief that the Internet does have the potential to make students better thinkers. They no longer have to memorize rote facts that can be pulled up in 2 seconds in Google, but now we can spend more time letting them use those fact to research things like their own history and other peoples' POVs - 2 things that were not easily accessible in the past.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the grammar and spelling, I think it is the teacher's responsibility to stress where and when it is okay to be "lazy" in mechanics (i.e., text messaging)and when it is not (i.e., responding to someone's professional blog). Why not make it count on a classroom blog just as it would on a paper? Just knowing that someone is looking at their grammar and "judging it" may cause them to proofread what they wrote - I know I'm getting stressed about my grammatical usage in this response now.