The English teacher began class by telling the students a story about her experience with technology. She began by explaining her goal for Sunday night was to finish grading all of their summary essays, so that they could have a sense of where they stood before back to school night. The students had been instructed to access the prompt and rubric on the website EDU 2.0. Then they were to read and article, write a summary, and submit it online through EDU. The teacher went home and found out that her internet was down, and would be for a long time. She was frustrated at first but then began to think, that if she couldn't grade papers she might as well watch her favorite show and relax. She then realized that she watches her favorite show on Netflix and therefore couldn't even do that. She concluded by saying that because the internet was down and we rely on it for so many different reasons she ended up going to bed by 8:30 that night.
The students all thought this was funny and relatable, because of the many mishaps we have when technology fails in the classroom. We then posed the query to them and asked what their stories about technology were. How did they use it? Why? When?
I followed up with a survey made up of questions like: how many hours do you spend online? What devices do you own/use? and for what purposes. How many texts do you send a day? What sites do you frequent? How often do you utilize technology in the classroom?
All of these questions related to the unit they were about to begin. Learning how to read and mark nonfiction articles centering around technology.
The students answers were pretty typical and possibly shocking. The amount of time spent online was astounding in some cases. Over 5 hours!? When asked follow up questions the students would clarify, by saying they use Pandora or Spotify to listen to music for extended periods of time. Others were avid gamers. The answers varied of course. Some led to other questions like, do your parents regulate your use of technology or limit your access to the internet. Some did and others let the students self regulate. The majority of the students when asked what tool they use most listed their phone. Even those who didn't have a computer usually accessed the internet via smartphone. They listed, Instagram, YouTube, tumblr, Pinterest and Facebook as their most frequented sites, but explained they also used their devices to access the schools educational network, EDU 2.0 to check grades, homework and communicate with teachers. Students also reported that they use their devices in school only when allowed (I know for a fact this is not true. I have viewed several vines via student's phones...) but I thought it was nice that they at least knew when they should/could use their devices.
The concept of EDU 2.0 is an interesting one to me. This website's function is like that of Gauchospace - a site familiar to UCSB students. It is like the Facebook of education; a place where students parents and educators can all go to get connected to what is going on in their classes. Many teachers post everything they did in class that day along with homework assignments and other resources all online. This can be a wonderful tool for students, especially when they are sick or absent. It can also work in the teacher's favor as well. The downsides are time and accessibility, and dependence. I have heard many teachers' gripes about using the system and the amount of time and effort it takes to actually post everything you did in class that day if you don't already have a digital copy. In addition to my teacher's anecdote, students also have trouble accessing the website sometimes as well. Finally, a problem I have seen is that students will complain that they didn't write down the homework in class and the teacher (who has announced her disuse of EDU to the class) didn't post the homework online, therefore they didn't know what to do. I call this dependence/lethargy.
It is clear that technology has begun to naturally become a part of the classroom, whether educators like it or not. The important question for them to answer is, "how do we capitalize on it?" How can technology become a facilitator of learning rather than an inhibitor?
I would like to make the use of technology in my classroom a norm but only when I feel comfortable with managing/regulating its use, and with an understanding of the students ability to access the technology we are using.
I would like to make the use of technology in my classroom a norm but only when I feel comfortable with managing/regulating its use, and with an understanding of the students ability to access the technology we are using.
Caitlin! Love your blog so far! I completely agree with your idea of reinventing the wheel - technology has such potential in education, although it could definitely become an inhibitor, so it needs to be used effectively. We need to capitalize on the amount of technology that our students are already (so greatly) exposed to. Why not take advantage of it? Like you discovered, they already spend so much time on the internet, might as well give them something educational to do with it (we all know how mindless the internet can cause us to be). What do you think about the issue of internet accessibility at home? Do all of your students seem to have access to it, and if not, how would you feel about assigning 'internet' based work if it's more difficult for some students?
ReplyDeleteAlso, great point at the end of your post - it's very important to understand students' abilities to access the internet (not just physically access it, but also, do they know how to use it in an effective way?) before jumping right into tech use in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you began your post with the story about how the teacher had difficulties with technology. I think this connection is great, because it provides an opportunity for connection between the teachers and students. I definitely relate to your frustration with students response to technology being dependence or lethargy - even avoidance or defiance! This is a frustrating problem because it is a very real issue: the Internet does frequently go down and/or many students legitimately don't have access to the Internet. However, there must be some way to productively avoid this problem, because it is less a technology issue and more an attitude issue. Students are in school to learn life skills as well as content knowledge and navigating Internet snafus is certainly a life skill. Perhaps there is a way we can proactively avoid this problem by including this skill as something we teach?
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