http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf
The author's argument for technology in this article is that there is a disconnect between the lives students live outside of school and the ones they live in side. Students go home and use critical thinking and problem solving skills in the games they love and play non-stop. How as teachers to we gap that disconnect?
This article provides many examples of how gaming can directly impact the classroom in engaging ways. It argues that games like Civilization, Sim City, World of Warcraft, and even Facebook are ways to teach students. Students are also collaborating through social networking sites on a daily basis. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook link millions of people together and allow them to share ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
The future is clear, we are heading this way into a technology dominated world. Educators need to adjust or that disconnect becomes much larger than ever. I know that while we do not want to use technology for technology's sake we need to be thinking about how to use it to enhance and transform our instruction.
At our school this means being on the cutting edge of technology. Getting our feet wet and experimenting early on is the best recipe for being ready to handle a constantly changing world of technology. Not being afraid to flop is another big hurdle I believe educators need to jump in order to embrace technology. Boundaries do not get pushed and improvements are not made unless someone takes the risk and tries something new.
I just think there is so much out there to try and its getting better everyday, that we do a disservice to our students if we are not trying to improve. We expect them to work hard on the material we give them, but then turn around and blatantly ignore the material that is all around us.
The "not being afraid to flop" is exactly what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. When I tried a new tool, (to make some posters) it worked fine. Later, when the 4th grade students went to use it, we discovered all sorts of gliches that I didn't run into before. At first I panicked.."oh great,its time to resort to plan b" but soon I discovered the kids figuring it out and it ended up being okay.Later we discussed what went wrong and how they fixed it to make it better and to make it work for us the best we could. We tried a different tool later and compared pros and cons to both. Sometimes, we have to let go of some of the "control" and let the kids figure it out on their own! (within reason) That can be really hard for me, but I am trying!
ReplyDeleteTwo good points made here:
ReplyDeleteThe future is clear, we are heading this way into a technology dominated world. Educators need to adjust or that disconnect becomes much larger than ever.
I would also add Dan's comment that "The future is clear, we are heading this way into a technology dominated world. Educators need to adjust or that disconnect becomes much larger than ever. "
I completely agree that the technology is getting better and we need to adjust and embrace it or the disconnect becomes even greater. I do find, however, that I still have several students who are not on social media other than Facebook, and many still do not have smartphones or tablets. This leads to some challenges when trying to embed technology into my lessons.
ReplyDeleteI have had several "flops" when trying to use technology. In the middle of our shark tank presentations last spring, the iPads kept losing the wifi and disconnecting from the Apple TV. That made it very difficult for the students to do their Keynote presentations; however, challenges like that haven't kept me from continuing to use technology.