Is Technology Ruling the Classroom? (week 2)

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

“A Vision of Students Today” by Michael Wesch depicts the day of an average student. Mr. Wesch demonstrates that a student spends 26.5 hours a day on activities such as class time, listening to music, and studying. He further shows that the time spent in the classroom and studying is less than that spent on social interaction. Mr. Wesch also points out how an average college classroom holds 115 students in a single session. Finally, Mr. Wesch states that students bring their laptops to class and many do not use them for class work.

It is clear from Mr. Wesch statements that we can conclude the average student today focuses primarily on social interaction while studies are secondary. This emphasis on social interaction at the expense of education has lead to poor performance in the classroom. We can further conclude that the size of an average class and the abundance of social networking tools, which are now so easily accessible through advances in technology, are contributing factors to this trend.

My personal experience in recent years support Mr. Wesch’s statements and these conclusions. For example, a student in one of my previous classes sat in the very back corner listening to his iPod, never making eye contact with the power point slides. The result was that he failed exams and continued with the attitude that it did not really matter. In most of my Standard English, History, and Math classes, the size was over a hundred and set in a stadium style environment. It is not possible for a teacher to remember every name and face of his/ or her students when they have seven or eight classes such as this. Students did not get the individual attention necessary to remain focused and most did not have the self discipline to do so on their own. I have also noticed students have their personal laptops out typing during class, the majority of which are on social sites or e-mailing. This seems more prevalent in recent years as technology has become more easily accessible and focused on social and entertainment based content.

"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines

In her article Ms. Hines states that she has begun to question the direction many teachers are taking in their use of technology in the classroom. While most of her colleagues believe it is the future of education Ms. Hines believes that a more fundamental change must take place within the education community before technology can reach its full potential within education. Ms. Hines lists four things she believes every teacher must realize before determining how technology should fit in their theories on the future of education; “Teachers must be Learners, Learning and Teaching are not the same thing, Technology is useless without good teaching, and be a 21st century teacher without technology.”

Ms. Hines’ first statement is supported by the fact that new things are happening around the world, textbooks become outdated, and new discoveries are being made. Teachers have to keep learning and expanding their minds to remain effective in the classroom. I believe the second statement, “Learning and Teaching are not the same thing”, suggests that just because teachers are teaching students doesn’t necessarily mean students are learning the material. It’s up to the students to learn the material, but teachers must find effective ways to promote this. Ms. Hines’ third point addresses the effectiveness of technology with respect to the effectiveness of the teacher. I believe this emphasizes that technology is a tool in the classroom and not a replacement for a good teacher. Without an effective teacher and good curriculum the technology is useless. Finally in her last statement Ms. Hines demonstrates that most of what her piers believe should be the focus of education in the 21st century requires the use of little technology. I agree that those things that have promoted learning in the past, such as creativity and enthusiasm for the subject matter, are still what are most important in the 21st century. At the same time I do not believe that technology should be completely ignored. If used correctly it has the capacity to enhance creativity and increase a student’s interest.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Mr. Fisch states that in his opinion there are groups of educators who are illiterate in terms technology, and to a certain extent proud of it. In his belief this is not acceptable. He goes further to make the statement , “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.” It is clear that Mr. Fisch believes that technology has penetrated so many aspects of today’s society that in order for students to be successful and compete in the workforce it is as important for them to understand how to use technology as it is to know reading and writing. Teachers must adapt with the advances in technology themselves in order for their students to gain the same skills.

I have done several long term subbing rotations in middle schools, high schools, and elementary schools giving me the opportunity to observe teachers in their classrooms. I tend to agree with what Mr. Fisch is saying as teachers seldom utilized technology and demonstrated little more than rudimentary skills. Most of my experiences were in special education classrooms, which would have benefited greatly from the use of technology. I agree that teachers must become more techs literate and the attitude of those who lack basic computer skills must change. Mr. Fisch’s analogy between safety on the internet and that of not understanding the mechanics of the internal combustion engine but still knowing how to safely navigate streets is one I find particularly true. We do not need to know everything there is to know about the technology we are using in order to do so in a safe and effective manner.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Gary Hayes web page shows the incredible rate at which people’s use of technology for social networking and entertainment purposes is growing. Every second of the day there is somebody creating accounts on social networks like twitter and facebook. It is clear that people are spending hours using technology to communicate and network. It is safe to assume that this trend will only continue and most likely accelerate. New technologies will come that will allow an even greater population to interact with one another at faster speeds.

I believe this will impact my future career as a teacher in two major ways. First, the ability to easily and quickly communicate with my students and peers will provide many opportunities that have not been available to teachers in the past. In order to take advantage of these opportunities I must find was to incorporate these social networking and communication tools into my curriculum. One such way would be to upload homework assignments to websites so they are accessible to students at any time. The second way that these social networking tools will impact my career is that they can be a distraction to the students. While the advances that have been made in terms of ease of communications can greatly benefit the classroom they can also have negative impacts as well. These tools are currently used mainly for entertainment and casual social communication which can detract from the effectiveness of the tool in the classroom. Additionally these tools can make cheating much easier and harder to detect.