Ben’s Blog

Some interesting thoughts from Oblinger and Oblinger (2005):

Throughout the article some interesting thoughts were raised from selected student responses about the use of technology in education: Below is a quote from the article regarding some students views towards technology:

“When students were asked why technolgy is essential to education they replied:

• It’s part of our world.
• Technology is so embedded in our society, it’d be hard not to know how to use it.
• It’s really helpful—it makes things faster.
• Abstract concepts are often easier to grasp when technology is used effectively as a teaching tool.
• Some students at my school who weren’t great students are better ones now thanks to computers.
• Technology allows us to learn as much as we want to about virtually any topic.
• I usually connect with friends either to get help or to help others.

By the teenage years, students use the Web extensively for school research (94 percent) and believe it helps with schoolwork (78 percent). Although technology is used heavily, students seem to keep technology in perspective. In their words – (Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005):

Take note of the student statements below and take a deep breath of relief…

• Teachers are vital to the learning process. Tech is good, but it is not a perfect substitute.
• Computers can never replace humans.
• Learning is based on motivation, and without teachers that motivation would cease to exist.
• A major part of school is building social skills. If we were to always communicate through technology and not in person, then the way we would view life would change dramatically.

I think that education and educators especially, need to focus on these points above as discussed in Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) in that students still value the teaching process, however realise that technology is a necessary tool that needs to be used along side, within, and throughout schools to develop and improve effective teaching practices which relate to the digital environment that we are surrounded by.

For more discussion please see: http://izza.edublogs.org/2008/11/04/children-and-it/

Upon reading the article by Green and Hannon (2007) about the issue of educators designing curriculum with no insight to how students learn and relate i began to think that some teachers are failing to recognise and value the skills that young people are developing outside the classroom.

“Teachers fail to bridge the gap between what pupils are learning in school and what they are learning out of school, and between the skills they are acquiring and those they will need. Teachers are in a ‘moral panic’ over new technologies, rather than having faith in the digital world.”

Through my experience i have noticed this moral panic from teachers. One reason for this panic may be due to the fact that teachers do not connect with technology as well as students, hence creating a level of anxiety about the digital age as they are not totally in control. I know i have experienced students being far more advanced that me in the classroom.

Faith implies that you have no control on the idea or situation, you simply put all your trust in something that deep down you know is right. As the digital age continually advances it can be easily predicted that we will need to be completely savvy in all areas of technology, I think that this may frighten a lot of teachers. 

As George Michael put it back in the 80′s – You Gotta Have Faith!

Take a look at http://www.edutopia.org/all-worlds-stage, in this article Sarah Fallon discusses the pro’s of Blogs (or Web Logs – i only found that out after reading the article). She discusses that Blogs are a great way to keep an eye on student work as they are posted on the web for all to see. Using Blogs collaboratively can be a great way to include parents in the educational process of their children.

“A teacher might maintain a blog to post and offer thoughts on each day’s work for the classroom — a boon to parents who want to keep up and to students who need to catch up. A blog might even contain an entire year’s assignments, handouts, and supplemental materials”

A great way to monitor student progress and store key informationfor assessments.

Through my experience on prac i noticed a divide in technology and ICT skills between teacher and student that was massive. My supervising teacher was a 40 something male who was experiencing a bit of a technological meltdown whereby he had tried to embrace the use of ICT in his classroom but was continually faced with steep learning curves that he struggled to overcome. His attitude was positive however as he realised that he needed to “keep up with the game” as otherwise he would be left behind. He realised that this may affect his teaching in that he was frightened of losing his students through an ever widening technological gap.

During my experience i also noticed a bit of a gap between myself and current school students… i thought i knew “enough” however was quickly woken up to the difference that existed between myself and my students. A good example is a lesson i took that looked at Injury Prevention in PDHPE.

The lesson activity included… “Design a Powepoint Presentation to illustrate a chosen Injury from a specific sport – eg, Knee injuries in Rugby Union, Ankle Injuries in Soccer, Shoulder Injuries in Aussie Rules”

I thought that this would keep my students occupied for a while… how i was mistaken.

Apparently powerpoint presentations were too easy and they were sick of them… Instead they requested to do the following:

1) Design a Web page to educate about injuries, using links to other related sites.

2) Create a computer animation, showing an injury hapenning and subsequent injury management strategies.

3) Create a advertisement (using media player, movie maker etc) to educate about the injury.

I think our brains are definately wired differently as a result of technology (Prensky, 2001)

A good blog to read that discusses the need to keep up with the times is http://dreeew11.edublogs.org/2008/10/11/getting-with-the-times/

I wanted to share with you another blog entry from “The Fischbowl” which discusses some very interesting points about the ATTITUDE of some “experienced” teachers to advancing technology…

“I sort of get the same feeling today about technology. It’s acceptable to say “I don’t really get computers” – and many people appear to be rather proud of their technological ignorance. And let me be clear, I’m not saying that technology is the end all and be all of education. As I think I’ve always tried to say, it’s just a tool to help us teach and learn and grow – but an indispensable tool. Technology is the underpinning of just about everything we do today – and especially so in relation to how we communicate with each other. And isn’t communication one of the essential ideas that runs through all of our disciplines?”

A great point from Fischbowl as it stresses that technology is an indispensible tool that we must use across the learning experience. He also states that a technologically inept teacher is like someone that couldn’t read 30 years ago… “If a teacher today is not technologically literate – and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more – it’s equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn’t know how to read and write” 

I completely agree with this statement as i believe a lot of the technological gaps between digital natives and digital immigrants comes from an attitude and unwillingness to change.

What a great argument Ben!… No wonder Australia IS the fattest nation in the world!

As another PDHPE teacher it is our challenge to champion physical activity but also promote and support the Digital Native Generation. Lets aim for a happy medium!

OK class… Get off your computers and do some exercise!!!

Consider: http://www.theage.com.au/national/nine-million-australians-are-a-ticking-fat-bomb-20080619-2tjv.html?page=1

In response to Ben Bryans Blog about the You Tube Video about students needing to be connected to the digital world…. Staying connected seems to be a priority as students do not want to miss out on the latest news, updates and gossip… if we can integrate this “need to be connected” into our teaching then our lessons could “connect” with students significantly. Collaboration with students and ensuring connection is made with technology but also between teacher and student will lead to greater learning outcomes.

This article by Marc Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, (2001) discusses the distance between todays students and todays teachers in relation to digital proficiency. The Digital Natives (students) have been raised with digital inflences at an arms reach, however the teachers (Digital Immigrants) are trying to educate these students and have encountered a change in their environment (from analog to digital) just like an immigrant would experience when moving to another country.

The article hypothesises that today’s student has a different thought process and brain structure due to different experiences, “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures… our students brains have physically changed – and are different from ours – as a result of how they grew up.” It also raises some interesting thoughts regarding how different people approach teaching and learning – “Digital Immigrant instructors who speak an outdated language are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” This point is important to consider when thinking about our approach to teaching as most students will think differently and we might have to design our lessons to accommodate the differences in “wiring” of student’s brains.

These days its not about whether we use computers, its how we use them.

The article reinforces the need to embrace this “new language” of the Digital Native and as the Nike slogan says… Just Do It!

An interesting article by Cladia Wallis, The Multi-tasking generation (2006) from Time Magazine. The article raises some good points to consider about adoloscent’s these days being able to muti task during just about everything, from doing homework while downloading music to talking to friends while listening to thier Ipod. It also discusses the lack of family communication that has resulted. ” The returning parent… was only greeted about a third of the time… we also saw how difficult it was for parents to penetrate the child’s universe.” This is a growing concern as relationship between parent and children has been compromised due to screen time on computers in many house holds world wide.

The Father in question from the article quotes “we rarely have dinner together anymore… everyone is in their own little world and we don’t get out together to have a social life.” This is of a concern to family communication and may increase likelihood of family breakdown.

On the positive side the use of multi tasking in todays student has seen a greater ability to find and manipulate information which may help the student to study and generate quality work for school, uni etc.

The article also states that today’s students are “less tolerant of ambiguity… they demand clarity.” This factor is very interesting as these students are displaying behaviour just like students with learning difficulties such as ADD/ADHD and Autism (As discussed in our Special Needs subject).

In summary, this article rasies some great points to consider such as social implictaions for students who do not engage in social circles, this factor can lead to student’s becoming socially inept. This quote is a great conclusion “It’s not so much that the video game is going to rot your brain, it’s what you are not doing that’s going to rot your life.”

You can also find another blog discussion of this article at http://maverick66.edublogs.org/2008/08/16/multitasking-teens/