I think my experiences with technology have caused me to look forward to the possibilities of utilizing technology in my future classroom. My elementary, middle, and high school experiences with technology (or lack thereof) lead me to believe the earlier students use technology in the classroom, the better. I really don’t see technology as detrimental as long as it is being used properly. I remember an extremely bright student that I went to middle school with being yelled at incessantly about his poor handwriting. No matter how well he wrote, some teachers would rip up his work. On a few occasions, I volunteered to transcribe his final draft as he read it aloud. I think now what a blessing a computer would have been for him. While it’s often blamed on laziness, I believe some students truly do have poor fine motor coordination that keeps neat handwriting (especially cursive) out of reach.
Students today have grown up in a ‘wired’ world and are adept at retrieving information from online sources and sharing their thoughts with online communities. This can only enhance the Language Arts classroom. I think there are many appropriate uses of technology in my subject area. Writing a paper can begin with using Inspiration to brainstorm. Drafts can be typed, proofread and polished with word processing programs. Students can peer edit each other’s papers on computers. Student presentations in class can be accompanied by PowerPoint. The teacher or a student can videotape speeches for constructive criticism. Modern day video interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays can be watched to compare to the original. Digital storytelling can be used for creative writing. Thumb drives can be used for students to easily transfer their work from school to home and back.
An inappropriate use of technology of would be cutting and pasting papers found online. To avoid this problem, I think it would be more efficient to have students turn papers in electronically rather than hard copy so that I could utilize an anti-plagiarism program such as TurnItIn.com to verify originality. I am not sure if this is yet possible in all schools.
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3 comments:
I agree with you. I was not exposed to technology in the classroom until much later in my educational career and I regret that. I'm sure in the future technology will be implemented into the classroom starting at a much younger age now.
I think that you made a good point about the use of technology in the classroom. I never thought of it helping someone because of their handwriting skills. I think we tend to think of technology as something we can use to work on projects or during a class to express a point. We could also use to help students who are smart succeed in the class. Basically we can use it on a one on one level, with the student doing their own thing.
We've heard a lot about PowerPoint being used - it's the model that most of us are familiar with! - so it's good to hear you all brainstorming about other ways that technology can be helpful. Not just for productivity, but for creativity - brainstorming, writing, storytelling... these are things we'll want to continue to explore.
Re: technology in the classroom occurring earlier, it seems like an historical artifact that technology wasn't used as much when we were in school, and we've talked about how teacher training in technology doesn't always lead to implementation for a variety of reasons. All of which to say is, this is an exciting time for you all - you have access to technologies, and training opportunities (like this course) that your predecessors did not.
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