A warm hello to my fellow reading specialists in training. While I was doing research for my thought paper, I came upon a remark that hit home and I felt that I should share it with you. The author was saying that the world is changing yet as an education system we are slow to react. We treat the students like airline passengers when they come to school and we tell them that they have to switch off all electronic devices. As I pondered on this analogy, I remembered the words of a pastor when he said that it is not money that is evil but man’s love for it. I say this because many of us viewed (and some still do) the internet and other technological tools as the harbinger of all evil but I think it is the wide-scale misuse of them that has raised our hackles.
However after attending Aisha’s classes and the doing research, I think that I can allay some of your fears when I say that the technology can be used for tremendous good especially when it comes to our students’ learning. When I think of the students in my school who are at-risk and what motivates them, I know they will be motivated to learn if they are introduced to blogs, wikis, podcasts and the other innovative Web 2.0 tools. We have to redirect the students away from misusing the technology and direct them to its more effective uses. And as for us educators, according to Adam Toffler (as cited on Aisha Wood-Jackson’s e-mail page), the illiterate are not those who cannot read or write but those who are unwilling to learn, unlearn and relearn. Come on let’s look at the other side of the coin.
2 comments:
Jewel really and truly before this class I would have been easily described as an 'air hostess' since as soon as you walk into my class your cell phone should be off. Hoever today I had a different reaction to a child readin texts during classtime. The children made me aware "Miss, alisia reading texts!" but I left her. I felt that I had a revelation she was reading! She also had to re-read the text to make sure she understood what she had read.An act I may have to beg her to do otherwise. I know I would not allow it to be a habit but I will definitely show them that the same skills you use to read a text message you should use to understand a comprehension passage.
Hi Jewel,
I agree totally with your comment. As educators we need to be cognisant of the potentially important role technology can play in educating our students, and especially to engender those not so inclined to read.Is our teaching effective? Who's being left behind? Which skills must our teachers master next, in order to help students move ahead? How can we prepare students for mandated assessments without tunnel-vision teaching-to-the-test? How can we begin to collect benefit from the dollars we've invested in education technology? How are we going to get the money, the time, and the talented people we need to sustain improvement?
Appropriately used-- interactively and with guidance- technology can become tools for the development of higher order thinking skills.
Inappropriately used in the classroom, technology can be used to perpetuate old models of teaching and learning. Students can be "plugged into computers" to do drill and practice that is not so different from workbooks. Teachers can use multimedia technology to give more colorful, stimulating lectures.
As reading specialists we need to use technology in a way that is beneficial to our students and ensure it is not a regurgitation of old methods. There is the chalkboard for that.
Post a Comment