There were a few things I found interesting in Chapter 2 this week. One of the biggest things that I read that made me really reflect was about web 2.0. More so on Web 1.0. As I said in my last post, I am a child of the 90s. I asked my brother (who is just a year younger than me) what he could remember about technology during his elementary through high school years (1990 - 2006.) We had just got our first family computer in 1997. I remember the dial up modem and having to wait patently for my mom to get off the phone just so I could listen to midi files of *Nsync (one of my favorite things to do on the internet at that time.) He and I both remember having to take a typing class. My mother took a typing class when she was in high school. But she took it on a typewriter. We took ours on a computer. I remember one girl in class who was really good at typing. The teacher asked her "How can you type that fast at your age?" Her response was "I talk in a lot of chat rooms." These days kids aren't great typers on keyboards, rather, they are great texters on phones. Unlike the kids of today, I received
my first cell phone when I was a senior in high school so my texting ability is limited.
My brother and I agree that one of the biggest influences in technology that we had experienced at school was playing the game Oregon Trail. What Oregon Trail taught us was that if you survived the 1800s you were close to godliness. The rest of us died of dysentery.
As for web 1.0 being taught in schools, that wasn't even an option for us half of the time. In our high school years (which was after the
millennium) We were able to do some research papers off of the internet but even then most teachers still wanted us to look things up in encyclopedias. (Which I remember using alot in middle school and high school.)
Another thing that I found interesting in this chapter was using technology in a fun and interesting way instead of what most of my teachers would do (lecture.) There are many good things about lecturing. However, most people can pay attention for just a few minutes or more. To sit in a classroom for 45 minutes is just ridiculous. I want to be the teacher that has everyone's attention for the day. The way to do that is to make it fun for the kids. Bringing technology to them certainly wouldn't hurt.
The last thing I want to talk about is the already availability of educational web 2.0 tools. One of these tools is a website called Edmodo. Edmodo is a site that is just like Facebook for students. The school where I was a after school middle school tutor used this a lot. The students would have assignments in class and they would submit them via Edmodo. Much like how we use canvas here at Florida Southwestern. Again, as I said in the last post, I worked at a BYOD school. Where I noticed there were some issues with having devices at school. There were many more great aspects of this method. The kids (when prompted) could get out their devices and do research. I honestly like this method of teaching. It allows the students to use devices, web 2.0 tools, learn from researching by and for themselves, and it allows them to have a little fun doing it.
Resorces:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
https://www.edmodo.com/about
Love your bitstrip commentary on teacher lecture! LOL and so very true, right? I'm wondering how many faculty continue to rely upon it for 45 min every day...hopefully a minority, but some days I wonder! You did a great job of creating and embedding that web 2.0 tool - can you imagine having students create their own understanding of what they learned in class using such a tool?
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting that your experiences with technology are so different than what we see today - we have made exponential changes in that short time compared with what happened in the past. And that is very true in technology, but sometimes I wonder how quickly education is staying up to date! :) Like your mom, I started out with a typewriter, but so happy that those natural keyboarding skills translated nicely to a computer (though I must confess, I'm a one-finger texter)!
Hi Professor Coleman,
DeleteWhen I was in my first year of college (back in 2005) I had Psychology. I had it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I love psych. I can tell you things I remember reading in my text book. The I had a professor who, at the start of class, would turn on her projector and start writing notes. For three hours we would have a lecture and note taking. On Thursdays we would take notes all the way up until the last 20 minutes of class. Than we would have our test from note taking from the last week. So for the week she would lecture and we would take notes for nearly 6 hours. There were no activities, discussions, or demonstrations of any kind, no major papers due. Note taking and then a test. I made it out of that class with a "D" and I am currently taking that class over this semester. I hated every minute of that class. But I have some great professors this semester and they allow me to be a little more creative than that. lol