The Daley reading brought in interesting perspectives on the idea of literacy in relation to technology. As the world advances, literacy is no longer just reading and write worksheets and books, now new technology is brought in to supplement those. This can either be a beneficial or negative thing, depending on the students. The quote that sparked this discussion is an interesting take on the negative aspect of the technological literacy, she wrote, "Multimedia, so ubiquitous to young people's experience, often seems to be particularly hard for them to deconstruct (Daley, 36)." In my experiences of working with students in the classroom, I have actually seen the both sides of this argument, one that supports the Daley quote, and one that opposes it.
During my fall student teaching internship, I wanted to incorporate technology whenever could. I always used the projector and gave interactive lectures with power points or prezis displayed behind me. The real struggle was trying to get the students one to one technology. Sometimes, I was able to secure the computer lab for the students to work on a personal computer while they researched information for a project. One project that we had was a Revolutionary Talk Show. The students had were given questions that they would be asked at this talk show, which would be held in class two days later. While watching the students, I noticed that they would just copy word for word what they found on each website. Most of the students would not read what they were writing then break it down into their own words. So after seeing this, I figured that they would do it during the talk show; but, of course, I was wrong. Even while presenting to the class, they read exactly what they had found on the site. The problem was that there was not any analyzation. The students would not process what they were writing; instead they would just see what was on the surface.
On the other hand, I have seen students in the classroom debunk Daley's quote. During my practicum last year, I was placed in a middle school where the technology ratio was one-to-one, where each student had their own device or Chromebook. Sometimes when working with these Chromebooks, their teacher would assign them a primary source document or an article for them to read. Rather than just reading, they would have to analyze the article and answer questions. They would use an app called Kami, which would allow them to analyze and annotate the article, as a pdf on the Chromebook. This allowed the students to highlight, underline, and mark up the articles to help them understand and process the information easier. From what I saw while walking around, this approach seemed to be pretty effective. However, in both my experiences, I never had any administrators discourage the use of multimedia in the classroom. From what I have heard from other teachers, it is important to use technology in the classroom, especially when an administrator is observing your teaching.
During my fall student teaching internship, I wanted to incorporate technology whenever could. I always used the projector and gave interactive lectures with power points or prezis displayed behind me. The real struggle was trying to get the students one to one technology. Sometimes, I was able to secure the computer lab for the students to work on a personal computer while they researched information for a project. One project that we had was a Revolutionary Talk Show. The students had were given questions that they would be asked at this talk show, which would be held in class two days later. While watching the students, I noticed that they would just copy word for word what they found on each website. Most of the students would not read what they were writing then break it down into their own words. So after seeing this, I figured that they would do it during the talk show; but, of course, I was wrong. Even while presenting to the class, they read exactly what they had found on the site. The problem was that there was not any analyzation. The students would not process what they were writing; instead they would just see what was on the surface.
On the other hand, I have seen students in the classroom debunk Daley's quote. During my practicum last year, I was placed in a middle school where the technology ratio was one-to-one, where each student had their own device or Chromebook. Sometimes when working with these Chromebooks, their teacher would assign them a primary source document or an article for them to read. Rather than just reading, they would have to analyze the article and answer questions. They would use an app called Kami, which would allow them to analyze and annotate the article, as a pdf on the Chromebook. This allowed the students to highlight, underline, and mark up the articles to help them understand and process the information easier. From what I saw while walking around, this approach seemed to be pretty effective. However, in both my experiences, I never had any administrators discourage the use of multimedia in the classroom. From what I have heard from other teachers, it is important to use technology in the classroom, especially when an administrator is observing your teaching.
Hi Tim. I see this in my own classes. If I want the kids to research something, the first thing they do is type it, even if it is a question, into Google and hit enter. Then they write down word for word whatever comes up as the first search result. They can't be bothered to actually look at the information or see if it even comes from a reputable site!
ReplyDeleteThe technology can be a double edge sword because it provides an opportunity for our students to see things and gain access to information that would otherwise by unattainable in a quick method. But they have become so conditioned to immediate response and gratification that ease or wealth of information is taken for granted.
I think part of the struggle of the classroom teacher is not only to educate the students in the subject matter, but how to navigate and responsibly use the technology to get them that information.
In the 1:1 classroom, its a bit easier to achieve this since the technology is being used everyday. You are able to set norms and expectations. I'm a huge advocate to the 1:1. I also don't save my students. I make them look at the sources and critically analyze whether it is a site that is providing true facts or is it providing bias.
That's great Joe, since it's so important! I had a third grade student announce to his class, completely seriously, that the Rocky Mountains are named after the movie Rocky. Though it was pretty funny, it's also a little frightening. The librarian I was working with asked him why he thought that, and he said he read it online. When she told him that not everything you see online is true, he was quick to agree, but the fact that it didn't occur to him to check the source at the time is problematic.
DeleteHi Tim,
ReplyDeleteThanks for presenting your two experiences around Daley's quote. I think using technology for research or to produce a project is always better than lecture, and I have learned there always has to be a critical thinking application to that research. We teach instructors to frame questions with "In what ways...", "Why..." or "How...", and never assign students to obtain information without an application, analysis or evaluation component. Students, especially young students, sometimes have to be led into critical thinking, or they will stop with recitation and think that is all that is necessary to learn information. I agree with Joe on the quality research comment as well. For example, we tell students to go to the references or resources provided, rather than simply using what is on the Wikipedia page about a topic.
Thank you for your insights!
Hi Tim! Thanks for sharing your insights. I have seen similar situations to the one you described above where your internship students would copy information directly from websites. What grade were you working with? One way that I fought against that with my third grade students was to have them take notes from websites (no complete sentences allowed!), turn those notes into summaries, then use only their summaries (no revisiting websites!) to create Google Slides presentations on their topics. It's really difficult to train students at any level to paraphrase, but it's so important for them to understand what plagiarism is and own the information their learning from different sources.
ReplyDelete-R
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteThe copying of information is such a common problem, especially for (but definitely not limited to) younger students. Coming from a library perspective, we try and teach kids how to do research, mainly by gathering information form different sources, and synthesizing it with their own thoughts. Still, it can be like pulling teeth sometimes!
Hi Tim!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post regarding the article from Daley. I think it is very beneficial that you tried to incorporate technology as much as you could throughout your student teaching experience. An important aspect for all teachers is building up the courage to dive in and just explore/utilize different technology tools and devices. Being that my mom is a second grade teacher I am always trying to show her new tools and resources that have been invented in the technology world. I was not surprised that during this time my mom had a wall up in wanting to learn about their uses. My mom is someone who is not very fond of change and likes routines to be done the same way year after year. I think this has become a major aspect for many teachers in not wanting to try out new technology tools and resources. Either they do not have the time or are much rather satisfied with the way things are already running in their classroom from previous years. When we are trying to encourage teachers to use and incorporate new technology devices into their classroom I think the means to which they are presented is an important aspect for whether or not the teachers end up using the tools or not. Overall, Great Post! I really liked being able to read about your insights regarding the article by Elizabeth Daley.
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post! Thank you for sharing your personal experience with students using technology. I have definitely been of copying definitions directly from the internet without trying to put it in my own words. Missing this step takes away from the value of the information you are trying to teach. I also think this is due to how accessible information is now. It is so easy to just go to Wikipedia and copy the summary that the site has already provided. This can lead to really lazy learning habits which will likely eventually hurt the student. It is great to hear that administrators are not discouraging the use of technology. It is important that students learn how to use technology properly for studying and homework.