Cheryl Lemkes 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn, chapter 11, Innovation through Technology has really had an effect on my way of thinking about technology. Even as I began taking several courses on technology, I was still not very convinced on how much should we expose children to social media. I was reluctant to so much change and information, mostly because it was overwhelming to me to digest so much. As I read, it came to me that its true how important it is to prepare children not only to use technology wisely but to understand the importance that it has in their lives and how threatening it can be when not used correctly. Just reading the statistics on pg.. 243, it was mind blowing.
So what is left to teach in schools if everything can be found on the web?? How can you engage children inside the classrooms without losing them to their mobile devices? It has become a mayor challenge due to the rapid pace of technology and it has left teachers wondering what to do to engages students in school.
I completely agree with Cheryl when she cites Richard Meyer on "people learn better by combining visuals with text and sound". As a kindergarten teacher I get to see how children that are exposed to this in class response much better than just being expose to one practice. As teachers, we need to be careful at this age because children are just like sponges and any misleading information can harm their learning. Its a challenge to lead a healthy learning environment in class and having them understand, at a very early age, the importance of being critical thinkers, able to discriminate useful information from just nonsense.
You are absolutely right when you say that we as teachers need to be careful at this age because children are just like sponges and any misleading information can harm their learning. We are so constantly bombarded with visual stimuli that it is very difficult to remain conscious of the effect they are having on the children and us. Advertisers and marketing professionals have been well aware of this lack of attention and have profited from it for a long time. So yes, we have to be aware of this in order not to hinder our students' learning.
ReplyDeleteI got very interested in your reflections with regard of the complexity of dealing with students in your department and the use of technology, because, as you point out, "misleading information can harm their learning". I guess there's a very positive relief in the point Lemke's taps on : competences on visualization, democratization of knowledge and participatory cultures for learning are innovative in education; Visual material is excellent for kids to learn, there's a immeasurable variety of visual aids at hand today to help the teachers' lessons, and the democratization and participatory culture means we teachers (who are supposedly the ones that could produce some safe learning material for students) have the chance to be producing effective tools for our lessons. Education institutions and teachers have the opportunity of producing valuable learning tools through new media, while we only had Sesame Street some years ago! (well, it's a way of putting it).
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that we need to educate students on the proper use of the internet.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that our biggest challenge is getting students involved and take responsibility for their learning.
You mention the importance of developing critical thinking skills. I think it is a major challenge and the most difficult to achieve. Technology is only a bridge to achieve this goal.
I understand your concern to be a kindergarten teacher but I think no matter what level you teach we will always feel responsible for what and how our students learn.
Tania Hinojosa