Monthly Archives: October 2013

Technology and Education: A Match Made In Heaven?

Working at my Intern Office Back in 2010 @ Community Works

Now, I’ll start off by being honest. It completely freaks me out when I see toddlers using their parent’s Smartphone’s better than the parent themselves. It just baffles me, and I become uncomfortable. Call me old fashioned but I think that children from ages 1- 10 are too young to be using Smart- phones, tablets and other such devices on their own. Why might you ask? Well it has to do with what’s online.

Toddlers are not taught what’s right or what’s wrong, most of the time they are experimenting with the technology. But experimentation might lead them to dangerous sites and dangerous habits.

In my Digital Media Literacy Seminar, we had a class of Upperclassmen studying Education come in and help us prepare lesson plans.

The turn that my group’s lesson plan took was that we focused on wanting Children to know that the things they do online do have repercussions. I remember one of the questions I came up with was “How much is too much?” How does a child know when saying something has gone too far? Can we really expect a toddler to be able to filter themselves?

These questions might seem extreme for some but really they are serious questions. The Internet is a world of endless possibilities and few restrictions, so how do we know that a Child has the correct internet mannerisms to go about using the internet unsupervised?

These are all really questions that spur from the debate of technology being used in schools. I think that there is a time and place for everything. Some classes have added technology use that is truly unnecessary. Other’s make great use of the technology – it depends on the teacher and it depends on the class. However, in general, I think there are benefits to having technology in the classroom. I just believe that before you can place technology in a child’s hand, that child needs to be taught the proper eicute on how to navigate the internet in a positive way that won’t have negative consequences for them in the future.

No one wants a boss to find a Facebook profile of a graduate student whose been tagged in way too many pictures parting – that would seem like the graduate is irresponsible. Being taught how to navigate through the internet from the beginning will possibly help avoid such situations.

I suggest that schools take into consideration an “Internet Etiquette” class. Some schools are already implementing such lessons into their classrooms, like MUMS in the town of Middlebury, Vermont. Such implementations can only make the usage of the internet safer for children and more beneficial in their overall life.

Teaching Digital Media Literacy

I found yesterdays class very enlightening. I always knew that there was a lot that went into teaching a class, yet the specifics of how it was done and what made one class or teacher seem superior to the other were always vague and unclear to me. Yesterday, I picked up some important tips and ideas from the other education class about how I am going to teach digital media literacy to middle schoolers.

First off, I need to make it clear to the students what the effective goal of the lesson is going to be. They need to know where it is we are heading in class, so they tie the activities into the overall theme right from the start. If they do not know what the effective goal is, it is highly likely that they will lose focus and stop caring about the material because they fail to see its relevance. Thus, it is my responsibility to lay that out from the start.

Next, I need to hook the students with an interesting piece of the lesson. Perhaps showing them something online that will catch their attention, and then pulling them into the topic with a few guiding questions. In this way, I will get the students to immerse themselves in thinking about digital media literacy right from the start.

From there I will walk them through more critical thinking about digital media and ramp things up. I have to be careful to give them time to reflect and rethink throughout, so that there ideas are constantly developing.

The lesson will finish off with a brief evaluation. I would prefer for it not to be in the form of a test, rather a discussion based around the major point of the lesson. The goal is for me to be able to gauge how much of the material the students were able to absorb, and where they took the new ideas that they developed.

The Art of Teaching

Yesterday we had an education class come in and, essentially, teach us how to teach. In the next coming weeks, we have to teach middle school classes something about technology. As interesting as it was to find out the thinking behind what teachers make us do in class, I don’t think teaching is for me. I found it difficult even to think of an idea, figure out what was important to get across, come up with ways to teach it, and then create some sort of assessment to see if the students understood what I taught. It takes extreme patience and social skills to be a good teacher; all characteristics that I admire and respect, but not necessarily what I think I excel at.

Overall, I learned that teachers need to create goals for the class on the large and small scale – what do I want students to do this semester? what am I going to get across today? Then, they need to recheck in with those goals constantly by assessing, reevaluating and discussing. Things like essential questions, skills, understandings, and knowledge all make up the content and purpose of a class or a course. All of this I understand while separated from it, but how do I actually get up in front of the class and teach?

I’m struggling even with the task of choosing a topic: what do the students already know? what would be useful to them? what am I allowed/not allowed to talk about? It’s extremely difficult to find out what’s relevant to the students and their classes without having the students for a long period of time. I guess this is how substitutes feel like.

Thinking about Teaching

Over the past week, I have been thinking a lot about education and how to help kids become interested in what they are learning. I work at a summer camp and teach Photography, so I’m familiar with making lesson plans for classes. But I can’t stop thinking about how to truly interest kids so that they want to learn.

Ever since visiting MUMS, I’ve been really excited to start working with the kids and learn more about teaching. I think that our trips to the middle school will definitely benefit the kids, given that they are probably more likely to listen to college kids preach about how useful something is rather than their teachers. However, despite how excited I am, I still can’t seem to come up with an idea for which aspect of media I will teach or how I will tailor that tool to the class I’m assigned to. I’m starting to realize just how difficult it is being a teacher. On one hand, specialized teachers (Math, Science, English, etc.) are very interested in their subject and it is easy for them to enjoy and understand what they are teaching. On the other hand, they have to balance this love for the subject with an ability to inspire that love in their students. I honestly don’t know how great teachers are able to make us motivated to learn the material they teach — but I think it definitely has something to do with using topics that the students are interested in, first, and transferring the skills gained to a topic that might not be as exciting.

It will be interesting to go through the whole process of writing a lesson plan in the coming weeks, though, and I’m excited to see what ideas we all come up with.

The Greatest Weekend…Ever

Where to begin…last weekend was one of the best weekends of my life. There were three main reasons why this was the case. The first of which is the football team’s huge win over Trinity. The Bantams of Trinity came up to Middlebury undefeated, with something like a 20 game winning streak. We prepared accordingly and when it came time to compete, we played at the highest level we’ve played at all year. The game was a nail-biter…back and forth through four quarters. In the final two minutes, Middlebury was down 20-24, but we were on offense and efficiently driving down the field. With 1:13 remaining on the game clock, we scored the go ahead touch down, making the score 27-24. Trinity, now with the ball, took their turn driving down the field. By the time the clock reached the 0:06 mark, Trinity had reached the Middlebury 30 yard line and it looked like a Hail Mary was their only option. As expected, the Trinity QB threw the ball up only to be intercepted by the Middlebury secondary, sealing the win for the Panthers. It was an unbelievable feeling to be a part of that game. I would venture to say that that game was the best win I’ve ever experienced in my life.

Another factor of my fantastic weekend was the visit I was payed by my girlfriend. She goes to Trinity so she made the trek up from Connecticut to watch the game and then spend the rest of the weekend with me. After not seeing her for two months, it was really great to catch up. It was even greater to rub the win in her face (she had been talking trash all week, thinking that Trinity was going to crush us).

Finally, it was homecoming weekend. Campus was packed with recent alums reuniting with old friends. Lets just say that the opening of the alumni owned frat houses on campus was far from boring on Saturday night. Fun was had by all, it will be tough to top this weekend in the future.

A Broader Definition for Literacy

In our Digital Media Literacy class, we have often discussed the social ramifications of technology use. We have talked about social-shaping versus technological determinism, and have so often settled on a point somewhere between the two. We discuss these concepts in terms of primarily social impacts – how technology affects our lives and relationships. But there is another part of technology that we have not discussed, perhaps because there is too little research or because it is too complex for an entry-level freshman seminar: the physiological effects of technology. To talk about how technology fundamentally changes us is quite deterministic, but if there is an impact inherent to technology, then how else can we view it?

If you are interested in this sort of thing (all two of you who are reading this), then I advise you head over to the New York Times section about it. There are concerns ranging from flashing lights affecting sleep, to use of technology limiting attention span (although this claim has often refuted), to affects on children of computer use by parents, and many more. I would even go so far as to stress concern about our constant exposure to plastics that are almost entirely unregulated and possibly carcinogenic, as well as the potentially mutagenic effects of radiation. I worry about these things for the same reason that we don’t study them: we just don’t have enough information. Try finding a good study about the effects of light on REM sleep, or about the possibilities for plastics to contain harmful chemicals (I find it hard to imagine that BPA is a fluke).

Obviously until we know more there can be no such thing as informational literacy about the physiological effects of computers. We do know of links between computer use and conditions like carpal tunnel, but repetitive motion injuries are much easier to document than brain and cellular impacts. For now, we need more research on what actually happens to the brain and to the body in response to digital stimuli. There is much to be learned in this regard. For the moment literacy about the physiological impacts of digital media means knowing that there is the potential for risk. A kind of play-it-safe, guilty until proven innocent approach would definitely slow down the infiltration of useful technology into our lives, but it also has the potential to avoid problems down the road.

-epn

Skiing

Moving away from digital media for the evening, I wanted to touch on the awesome winter that is coming. I don’t know about you guys, but I am a huge skier. I don’t race or anything, I just love skiing for fun and have been lucky enough to ski all over the US and in Argentina. There are many more places that I want to ski, including Europe, Japan, and Canada. There are just so many awesome places to ski and it can be very overwhelming. I grew up in Northern California, so I would ski a lot in Tahoe and sometime my family would fly to Park City, Utah and ski some of the resorts there. I recently moved to Vermont for college, which is definitely a big change from California. I love the fact that my college (Middlebury) is surrounded by several very famous mountains for back east skiers. There’s Stowe, Killington, Mad River, Sugar Bush, the Middlebury bowl, and many more that are as little as 30 minutes away. I know that the snow on the east coast can be a lot worse to ski on than in California, but regardless I am glad that I will be able to ski while I am in school any time I want. Everyone tells me that the snow is much icier due to the cold and that there is no powder, but with the climate changing I’m hoping that there will be some powder days at some point. It will be so fun to be able to go up to the mountains and ski with friends at any point throughout the winter.

Another topic I wanted to get to in this post is the snow that is already falling in Tahoe and Whistler and even Vermont. Killington has already opened and its only October. Whistler has so much power it is insane. Tahoe got almost two feet of snow in the last day. If the winter is here to stay, us skier and snowboarders are looking at a promising season. It is exciting stuff and I am looking forward to getting out there and hitting the slopes. Attached are some photos of Whistler in Canada, Killington in Vermont, and Northstar in Tahoe.

Killington Opening day 10/25

Tahoe this morning with one foot of new snow

Whistler Blackcomb Full of power, dating all the way back to the beginning of October. Unbelievable!

Wikipedia Editing

In my digital media class, we were assigned to work on making a wiki page on a social media of our choosing. I have been created a foursquare wiki. I find the process to be very intriguing and worth talking about. I honestly had no idea where to start, so I looked up how to format things on wiki pages and made an outline with general topics. As a I researched Foursquare, I added to the page each time I found something interesting. I split it up into the features of the application, the uses of the application, and so on. It made it very enjoyable to see the page grow from all different places. I started with a struggling 100 words and now its almost 1500 words. I think I added enough to make it a good draft that other people in my class can contribute to. It is hard to contribute to other pages if they are not sufficiently outlined, like mine is. The outline really allows the editor to know where the founder of the page was headed with his or her work. I really enjoyed contributing to other pages and making it a team effort like a google doc. The technology today has allowed producing information to be so efficient and wonderful. For those of you who do not edit wikipedia, you should really give it a try because it can be very rewarding and fun to do. You can see how a page can be transformed with oodles of information in just under a day. I definitely think I will continue to edit pages in the future and move towards harder and more complex works.

What Now?

Midterms are over. I have written a total of thirty pages of essays in the last two weeks. I have taken two 2+ hour examinations and an in class essay. So my question is: what now? I almost feel bored that school is conventional again. I sit here in the library thinking that it was an unproductive day because I only had 90 pages of reading for PolySci, wrote half an essay for Spanish, and worked on my wiki during the day. Midterms made me stronger. Writing a five page essay does not seem like such a daunting task anymore.

I suppose it’s time to look to the future. We are only have five weeks until finals. Soon, the snow will fall and I will be skiing again. Soon, I will be getting back from a day of training at the snow bowl, cold and tired and wanting a nap. But instead, I will have to finish an Econ problem set and do some readings for DML. From hearing stories from alumnus this weekend, I have learned that this whirlwind will soon be over as the real world awaits us. It may be tough right now, but it is also so exciting. I have learned an incredible amount already and I look forward to learning even more.

– Murph

Growing Up (Virtually) Tech-Free Part 2

My elementary school used no integrated technology in its curriculum. We had perfunctory requirements for typing improvement and proficiency in word-processing, but during the rest of our education computers were completely peripheral and interactions with them were informal. Even research was conducted at the library instead of on the internet, with an emphasis on learning from books. One might think that someone who had so little exposure to the world of technology would find themselves behind when they reached the next stage of education, but I found no such detriment to my ability. I was of course not ahead when I got to middle school, but I could easily keep up with my classmates.

I can’t believe that extensive technology use in education is necessary in elementary school. Even for the so-called disaffected learners, there are other ways to achieve engagement. I think that the kinesthetic element of learning is too often overlooked; how else will students learn how to interact with their world if they don’t cultivate those interactions? Humans learn by doing, by feeling. The best way for a student who feels disengaged to get excited about learning is through sensory experience. Now it may seem like computers offer an excellent opportunity for sensory stimulation outside of typical teacher-student interactions. The limitations of computers, however, lie in their inability to have a kinesthetic experience (typing in no way counts), essentially excluding an entire learning style. You can’t feel your way through a virtual experience (at least not yet).

The other issue with learning using computers is one David Buckingham points out in his book, Beyond Technology. That is that students’ interactions with technology at home tend to be far more pleasurable and less educational in nature than those at school. Bridging the gap between how computers are used in school and how they are used at home is certainly an issue with technology in schools, but it is only an issue if we are insistent that technology offers the best way for students to learn. I remember in a first grade math class when we were learning how to tell time, that we made clocks out of paper plates. The entire experience would have been so different, so much less meaningful, less tactile, less tangible, if we had been manipulating clocks virtually rather than physically. Of course there are times when technology offers opportunities that physical things cannot, but I don’t think it’s necessary to push it into every facet of the curriculum.

By the way, the assertion by Prensky that Buckingham quotes, that “the true secret of why kids spend so much time on their games is that they’re learning!” is complete horse-hockey (yes, horse-hockey). The reason kids spend so much time on games is that computer games are designed with reward systems that stimulate dopamine pathways in the brain, which creates pleasure. Because children have relatively little self-control (think: candy), they will continue to activate these pathways as long as they get the dopamine rush.