"Technology can expand the curriculum to include the world beyond the classroom." Today's society is regularly referred to as a global community. Every region of the Earth is easily communicated with via the Internet. Borders dissolve online. Incorporating digital technology into the classroom allows for students to experience this time of society in an educational setting. I'm currently student teaching and today I sat in on a grade-wide professional development meeting. One of the teachers was discussing how she had signed her class up to be apart of an online group learning experience. Her class and another second grade class from Vermont will be reading the same books and regularly communicating through email and Skype in order to discuss the books. This use of technology is allowing her students, and the students in the other class, to hear different viewpoints from around the world. The students in rural Vermont will almost certainly look at the stories in a different light then those in Queens. However, it is likely that they will also develop similar thoughts about the stories. Through technology, these students will be able to gain an understanding of diversity and how different people from different places can be so similar. This experience would be much more difficult, if not entirely impossible without the use of digital technology.
I think it is important that modern technology be incorporated into the classroom in ways that are innovative, educational, and fun. Denying students access to technology that is becoming a part of everyday life does them no favors. If the technology can be incorporated in a way that is beneficial and safe, why not include it? Technology provides everyone with easy access to information and all different kinds of information. It changes the way people view information. Assessing reliability of information is even more important now and instills a sense of responsibility in learners to have accurate data.
Digital technology makes learning fun. It's exciting to get to use something that works so immediately it almost seems impossible. Learning should be fun and if digital technology helps to make it fun, then I'm all for it. I want to make education fun so that my students want to learn and want to continue to learn throughout their lives.
Questions:
1. What are some strategies that can be taken to instill a code of online ethics in students?
2. How can we reconcile the trend towards increased use in technology and parent wishes to limit their children's daily use of digital technology?
3. How would your educational experience have differed had today's technology been available to you?
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your comments on using technology to "to hear different viewpoints from around the world". I think this ability to "hear'" and also interact with with students around the world is one of the most exciting opportunities that technology brings. I look forward to collaborating with children and teachers in different continents on a project or setting up digital pen pal programs so students can develop an international perspective on an issue. This ability to connect with students and resources internationally is incredibly exciting, and in my mind, often underutilised by teachers who sometimes don't realise how great technology can be in increasing this type of communication.
I love the second grade teacher's idea of connecting with a classroom elsewhere and sharing in a lesson together. I think that is one of the wonderful ways in which technology can be used in a classroom. Based on where these children live alone and how their environments differ, their perspectives on the very same book will differ. But, at the same time, there will be a lot of similarities that may appear because they are kids of the same age. These are the types of things I've always pictured when building global communities in classrooms - sharing the experiences of different school communities together.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel!
ReplyDeleteI agree that technology is a great way to engage students in the classroom and act as a motivator for learning. Students are more inclined to learn if they are working with something that is familiar to them. I think that the idea you mentioned in your post of the teacher using virtual communication in her classroom with that of one in Vermont, is a great idea. This opens up the students' experience, and it is not only confined to their classroom.