Even if the school year hasn´t started yet, we are in fact in the middle of Summer holidays right now, the beginning of the school calender ahead, with all its new projects linger in the air, posing a few question marks that accompany the implementation of a BYOD model.
An issue which I still need to come to terms with is the question of whether this new model will really bring benefits academically speaking or just distraction in the classroom.
For middle and senior school teachers who need to train students to communicate and do research better, how are they going to incorporate digital technologies and devices on a 1 to 1 basis to improve these skills?
Teachers usually characterize the overall impact of digital technologies being highly positive for students. But they also show mixed feelings about it, for they also think that the use of search engines have conditioned students to expect to find information quickly and easily with a negative impact in research. A very interesting and detailed survey conducted by the PEW Research Center (pewinternet.org) to AP and the National Writing Project teachers shows that most teachers agree that the amount of information available online today is overwhelming for most students. But at the same time they strongly agree that internet enables students to find and use resources that would otherwise not be available to them.
"Today´s students are not skilled enough at thinking critically about or synthesizing the information they find online". Have you ever heard this comment? Well I have, but what worries me is this other question: who has got to address the needs our students have about competences and abilities they need to succeed today and in the near future, including information and media literacy skills?
"Conducting research online can present too many distractions for students preventing them from fully focusing on the task at hand", referring to online multi-tasking behavior that teachers describe as interference and lack of concentration on a given task.
My question is, as Marc Prensky puts it beautifully in his paper "Engage Me or Enrage Me”, is it a question of relevance or engagement? Can we capture most of our students attention with old ways? I have a serious doubt here: why is it students don’t have short attention spans for their games, movies, music, or Internet surfing? More and more, they just don’t tolerate the old ways— are we doing better by them?
So, I think we have to start discussing how to present our curricula in ways that engage our students—not just to create new “lesson plans,” not even just to put the curriculum online. We need to model students and teach them to become information and media literate so that they learn the skills they need to succeed: judging the quality of information, writing effectively, being responsible online, understanding privacy issues, communicating ideas creatively with a variety of media, finding information quickly, working in a networked way, understanding the symbols each media gives to the message...
Of course, time is always the issue: time to prepare new lessons, time to implement them and yet meet content restrictions. Let´s not make of it an eternal alibi.
Whether or not we think "digital natives" are different to prior generations, the truth is we need to teach students to be active participants in their surrounding culture so that they (and us!) can contribute with our time.
So I think it´s compelling that we address including meta-literacies accross the curriculum as a great opportunity, empowering students and teachers with plenty of devices at hand.
I´d love to hear people´s views about this.
Dear Andy, Congrats for the new Blog!
ReplyDeleteMy humble contribution. When it comes to he use of new technologies in the classroom , I do believe that most of the success comes hand in hand with the teacher´s beleive that it will work. Our students speak this language daily, and as you say in your blog, they do not find it difficult to spend hours in front of a screen. So what makes it different in the classroom is the way in which we guide them as teachers to make the use of diffrent gadgets meaningful and interesting as well as enriching. As in the old days, we learn the most when we know what we are learning and why we are learning.
Teacher´s job is to make content meaningful to our students, being Shakespeare we are teaching or discussing the effects of Global Warming. Content is just an excuse to bridge worlds! Ours and theirs. I have tried most of the things that were offered to me in relation to new divices, facebook, blogs and lately tweeter. In the last 10 years, we as teachers, have had to adapt to these changes. I have to admit I have been the one enjoying the path, knowing that the results were going to empower my students who saw that school could also be part of their world.
Gladys Lesmi Dallas
@gppppins
Thank you Gla for sharing your experience. I agree with you that content is an excuse, no matter the subject area, to help students become life long learners.
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