If you have seen the movie, Napoleon Dynamite you may remember a cute little song that I will entitle "I love technology". It is from the wedding scene at the end of the movie when LaFonda and Kip merge their lives together.
Today during class, when we were all watching Tony as a 28 year old and a couple times when he was younger we found that the visual stayed the same and almost kept shaking back and forth as though someone was turning it on a turn table, just a bit of new stuff, back to old, forward, back and so on. This irritated me, as I am sure some of you felt the same. Why is the audio continuing but not the picture?
I cannot agree with Kip and his passion for technology and "chatting online with babes all day". I don't appreciate technology like he does, it irritates me. How many presentations do we give where it is awkward while you wait for something to come up, or technology is "not responding". You fumble around, trying not to panic, but in your head it is either what is going on?? or perhaps some words that I will choose not to put in my blog. :)
Technology is supposed to be this big awesome tool. But I feel like there are so many moments when it just goes wrong, and even worse, horribly wrong!!! The computer eating your paper is legit! I have never lost a whole paper, but a good chunk of work, yes. Or that awesome video clip that just explains your topic so well, it won't connect like you had practiced 4 times before the presentation.
I think our society is far too reliant on technology and we need to start being able to go back to some of the basics. How many children struggle with basic math skills compared to our parents? Calculators are a form of technology and in my opinion are used far too heavily, early on. We need to make sure math is mastered before allowing for the use of calculators which in my opinion lull the brain to sleep. What about our spelling? I wonder how we would do on a spelling test compared with about 30 years ago. Those words that your computer automatically fixes, you never realize you have been spelling it wrong all these years.
I guess it boils down to me not trusting technology! Yes it is good for some things, but I think we should become less reliant.... what do you guys think???
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I agree with you Brandie! I find everyone relies on technology way too much and people forget the basics. In my last practicum, my TA says he doesn’t make the kids read the textbook because he doesn’t think kids really read anymore… that they read small pieces of things but not books. I found this really surprising. I thought we should be encouraging reading, not discouraging it. I agree that the way we read might be changing, such as reading more online than in books or magazine, but I think we should still be encouraging kids to read and find information. I gave the kids an activity that they had to use their textbooks to find information, a good portion of the students were lost and didn’t know where to start. I had even directed the kids to the pages that they would find the information but unless the question was word for word out of the textbook they did not know how to apply what they read to answer the question. I shouldn’t make the generalization that all the students were this way but definitely a number. I think that reading and using textbooks should still be taught and encouraged. It seemed that these students were accustomed to being handfed the information that they weren’t sure how to get the information they needed on their own.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that the smartboard is used much more than it needs to be and I admit that I’m guilty of using it a lot in my second practicum, not so much in my first. I think the smartboard can be very effective for teaching certain concepts but if it’s used all the time, it can lose it’s pizzazz. And if you rely solely on the smartboard what happens when the technology doesn’t work? We spend a lot of time wasted trying to get it up and running because we don’t know how else to teach or because we have created such a great smartboard lesson that anything else just wont do. We should be prepared for the possible technology crash but I wonder how many people really are. Even in some of our university classes, we have had the experience if the technology isn’t working our profs can’t lecture and we leave class early.
I think technology can be a good thing but we shouldn’t forget about the basics. Teach students how to find information in books as well as online. Encourage reading in your class. Maybe even setup that all students are expected to have a book with them at all time so if they finish early they know what they should be doing…reading. Just my opinion but I think we should encourage reading because even if the way students read is changing, they will still need to know how to read.
Sheri,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. I think it is interesting/weird that your teacher completely gave up on the textbook. That to me is a very vital area to retrieve information from. Especially in our position we need to realize that we do have the ability to influence kids that reading is good.
I personally have to admit that I didn't really enjoy reading for a good amount of my life. All we did was read from the text, and in university you struggle to keep up with the reading because every class basically has a chapter to be read before the next class, so reading of enjoyment doesn't really occur. But recently I have been making more time for reading for pleasure, yes some of my university reading has decreased because of this, but it also has made text book reading more pleasurable.
The concept of always having a book to read when the students have spare time is a great idea. I think this will help with classroom management as well as the students' literacy skills.
I think Prof Runte raised an interesting point when he mentioned in class a couple weeks ago that countries that teach reading later in life have a higher literacy rate. I think that is a really interesting point and it makes me question where our education system is trying to go, I have a niece (who frequently gets mentioned in my blog) who could read easy books in kindergarten. That is crazy, are we hurting her chances of growing to love reading? That makes me sad that something that is required of us/her may cause her to grow to hate reading and never want to do it.
I think reading is so valuable that we need to emphasize it to the best of our abilities!! Kids will really struggle in life if they don't master reading! I think, not only do they need to master the reading but the comprehension as well. Your students not being able to pull out the answer out of the text was a little saddening. I am sure you taught/tried to teach them better comprehension skills, so great work Sheri!
Thanks for commenting! :)
Sheri,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. I think it is interesting/weird that your teacher completely gave up on the textbook. That to me is a very vital area to retrieve information from. Especially in our position we need to realize that we do have the ability to influence kids that reading is good.
I personally have to admit that I didn't really enjoy reading for a good amount of my life. All we did was read from the text, and in university you struggle to keep up with the reading because every class basically has a chapter to be read before the next class, so reading of enjoyment doesn't really occur. But recently I have been making more time for reading for pleasure, yes some of my university reading has decreased because of this, but it also has made text book reading more pleasurable.
The concept of always having a book to read when the students have spare time is a great idea. I think this will help with classroom management as well as the students’ literacy skills.
I think Prof Runte raised an interesting point when he mentioned in class a couple weeks ago that countries that teach reading later in life have a higher literacy rate. I think that is a really interesting point and it makes me question where our education system is trying to go, I have a niece (who frequently gets mentioned in my blog) who could read easy books in kindergarten. That is crazy, are we hurting her chances of growing to love reading? That makes me sad that something that is required of us/her may cause her to grow to hate reading and never want to do it.
I think reading is so valuable that we need to emphasize it to the best of our abilities!! Kids will really struggle in life if they don't master reading! I think, not only do they need to master the reading but the comprehension as well. Your students not being able to pull out the answer out of the text was a little saddening. I am sure you taught/tried to teach them better comprehension skills, so great work Sheri!
Thanks for commenting! :)