The Networked Student and a PLE are great ideas. But I really have to wonder how many students can pull this off. Every time I sit down to watch an assignment or read a blog, I am focused on the task in front of me. By the time I am done I am saving endangered animals in Africa. I click link after link after link until my original assignment is long gone. My daughter would thrive with a PLE. She loved her agenda in high school and her iphone now. She loves organization and plans; my son and I not so much. I am lucky if on any given day I can find my phone. My son only held on to his agenda for the first two weeks of school and then it was gone. It doesn’t matter if I am in the computer lab or at my laptop at home, overload is overload. I really struggle seeing all students being successful with so much information at their fingertips. I think we are still focusing on a certain group of kids.
Dr. Strange's question is "are you prepared to be a teacher of a networked student?" Maybe the question should be "are you prepared to network the unnetworked student?" I think technology is great. We need to keep making advances so that our kids have every possible advantage. But I just have a feeling that there is still going to be too many kids that fall through the cracks.
Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative
Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards
After reading both of these articles I called my friend, Brenda, to get her opinion on Smartboards. Brenda has been teaching second grade in the public school system for 27 years. Over the years she has seen a lot of fads come and go. She is also a creature of habit and not very fond of change. So when I called her I was pretty sure I knew what she would tell me. Boy was I wrong.
Brenda loves her Smartboard. Unlike the two authors of the articles, she considers it a great tool. Not only does she feel like it keeps her student engaged in the lesson but it also keeps the whole class working together. With lesson plan after lesson plan at her fingertips, she believes that it has made her a better teacher.
So maybe Michael Staton and Bill Ferriter didn’t really give the Smartboard a fair shake. Maybe they needed to explore more resources on how to utilize it to their advantage. Or maybe they really just don’t like it. I have included a link Teachers Love Smartboards to a blog of other teachers who really love their Smartboard.
I hear you Molly! Sometimes the workload of this class feels manageable, and at other times it feels like it's causing me to lose my mind.
ReplyDeleteYou were actually lucky to have an experienced and professional friend to call upon for advice! I actually learned alot from the kindergarten teacher whose class I spent my observation hours in last semester. This was actually only her second year teaching, but she did a great job of using her SMART Board. The kids seemed to love going up to it to interactively learn their lessons. They didn't even seem to know that they were learning! That was the cool part.
Good post. Hang in there, Molly! :)
Molly,
ReplyDeleteYou say, "I really struggle seeing all students being successful with so much information at their fingertips," and I chuckle at this statement. Are you saying that we should withhold knowledge from students in order to prevent them from being "overwhelmed?" The kids that are "falling through the cracks," as you say, those are the ones that are not receiving an education that will help them keep up with our world.
- Allie
No Allie I am saying that if you go into a restaurant and there is 2000 things on the menu instead of 20 it does not mean you are getting a better meal. There is something called to much of a good thing. And I have to chuckle that you think a child has a quality education because he is learning technology.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you consider to be "technology?" The actual definition of the word is "the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts; systems of methods in order to solve problem or serve a purpose."
ReplyDeleteAs teachers, we are supposed to prepare our students for the "real world." At a young age, we need to teach children the importance of certain technological tools and how to use them effectively - only if we want to be proficient teachers, of course.
Answer me this, Molly. Why do you think America has fallen so far behind other countries?
Our system needs revolutionary change if we even want to remain in the running.