I hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break! I wanted to kick off the final part of our semester with an interesting video for you all to watch. Dr. Karen Milligan has asked the faculty to watch this clip and comment to her. I would like for you to do the same and comment to this blog posting. The link to the video is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
I would like for you to tell me what you think about the message the video is telling. Look at it from the perspective of a student and a teacher. See you Wednesday!
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I agree with the message the video is sending.
ReplyDeleteFrom a student's standpoint, I feel that what worked in the classroom, even ten years ago, will not work today. Education should evolve as society evolves. Most students do spend a lot of time online, whether it is communicating, networking, or browsing. I think teachers should take this into account. Students would be more interested in the subject matter if the class focus was less on the textbook and more on introducing material through interactive technology.
From a teacher's standpoint, I believe in the value of technology. I have witnessed firsthand the effectiveness of implementing technology in my classroom. I have experimented teaching with and without technology. For example, my Business Law students have scored better on tests and have retained more information when they do research online and put together PowerPoint presentations, than when I lecture and we have class discussions. I can see the excitement about the subject matter when they are involved in the learning process. How can we prepare our students for the future, when we as teachers are stuck in the past?
This video is a nice reminder of the need for technology in the classroom. It wasn't that long ago when I was a student thinking that my teacher knew nothing about my life outside of school. I can completely empathize with this video. I have attempted to use technology at school, but it can be an ordeal. I understand that it might be too time consuming or confusing for some teachers to change habits they've had for twenty years. However, the outside world is changing, so the classroom must change with it.
ReplyDeleteFrom our discussion Wednesday night, I also agree that some students, even the ones who don't want to be there, need to take some responsibility for their actions. As a teacher, we have the responsibility to use technology and enovations in the classroom. The students must share in that. We can only do our best to reach them. If using blogging in my class means that a student who never reads anything but web pages will read something new, I am fine with that.
Online, one can find notes to any book or story ever written. It is difficult to guarantee that a student is reading. As teachers, we have to make sure that, as with the student in the video, that we aren't making our students pay one hundred dollars for a book that we never expect them to read. There is weight on both sides of this scale. We have to do whatever we can to reach our students and prepare them for the future. Technology is part of that.
I really liked the message that the video portrayed. As a student I am forced to buy textbooks that I never use and have to pay atleast $100 dollars for. Often times I am assigned readings that are boring and pointless. I would much rather take part in learning by researching things on the internet, or through other hands on activitites instead of having to sit in class listening to the teacher lecture.
ReplyDeleteAs a future teacher I plan on incorporating technology into my classroom because it is a hugh part of student life today. Most kids spend more time on the internet than anything else. I also believe that if students research topics online and are actively involved in learning, they will learn more. Knowing how to use technology is also a necessity in the business world today, so by incorporating it into the classroom I will be helping students prepare for their future.
From the perspective of the student: I think basically they feel like the teacher does not REALLY care about them as individuals. To the teacher, they feel as though they have no name. They are just a number. Often at the University of Tennessee we would jokingly introduce ourselves by the last four digits of our social security number, for instance, “Hey! My name is 9942. It is nice to meet you 5163!” There are times when instructors lecture strictly from the book, not giving any “new” information. Most students feel as though they can obtain that information themselves and on their own time. As a result, the students feel disconnected from teacher. Thus, they begin to disconnect from the lecture and then the subject matter.
ReplyDeleteAs I am about to enter the teaching profession, I am more sensitive to teacher’s perspective. One sign said, “My average class size is 115.” This is partly the consequence of attaining a larger University. As this is probably not the only class of 115 students this instructor has, one must wonder if he/she is not thinking; how would you expect me to remember every one of your names? Another sign said something about writing 42 papers for schools, but writing 500 emails. There is a HUGE difference in writing a professional paper for class and sending a casual email to a friend. If a student has future plans of opening his/her own business, they are not going to be able to just shoot an email to the bank to ask for a loan. They will have to write out a formal business proposal (which may be done electronically, however, still “formal”). Therefore, I agree that there are things that a teacher can and should do (technology wise) to make learning more enjoyable and realistic, but I do not feel like instructing only through email, facebook, twitter, etc. is practical, or even in some cases applicable. I think from the perspective of a teacher, this video shows how lazy students continue to be. They want everything made easy for them. They do not want to take the time and make the effort to do the work and reap the benefits of actually “learning.” As for the student that brings his laptop to class, but does not work on “actual class stuff,” to me that shows a lack of manners. As a teacher, I would find that disrespectful whether there are 15 or 115 in the class. I believe the teacher probably realizes that the students are not getting as much out of the class as he/she would like since his/her resources are limited by the system, however, it does not make what is being taught any less valuable.
I can completely see where the students are coming from. I know that in my undergrad classes here at CN there were times that I was easily distracted. CN is no the most technologically advanced campus. Yes, we have some updates but we are still a very lecture and powerpoint oriented school. There are a lot of great professors here, but they don't utilize all that is available to them. As a science major, I know that there was so much more that we could have used to bring it all together.
ReplyDeleteNow that I am becoming a teacher I find myself trying to be more aware of what is being used in the daily lives of students. I think that if we can close that gap between home and school that will be a good start to keeping the students interested and participating.
I can completely understand where the students are coming from. There were quite a few times that I was distracted in my undergrad program here at CN. We are not the most technologically advanced campus and that was definately evident in my general education classes. There were very few times that even PowerPoint was used. Lecture was exactly that, a professor standing in front of the class speaking for 50 min. It became very tedious and boring.
ReplyDeleteAs an up and coming teacher I find myself trying to be more aware of what students are using in everyday life. I think that if those things can be incorporated into the classroom the students will be a little more engaged. I think the key is closing the gap between home and school.
After watching the video again, there a couple of things that occurred to me.
ReplyDelete1. Students contribute to their own learning everywhere except in the classroom. They learn on their own all day long - mostly by using technology - and then get to a classroom have no options for doing what they do all day everyday. The traditional classroom is so different to them that they don't know what to do.
2. Weather or not we like it, the messages we try to deliver compete against the messages delivered via all the various media students encounter. Our message must be delivered in an appealing way (appealing to the student - not necessarily to us) or it will not even be noticed.
3. Although the first two are true, it is also true that students need to be able to function in environments that don't fit perfectly into their preferred methods of learning and contributing.
It is our job to realize and change our methods to incorporate all three.
Being an older student, I was used to the lecture type of teaching; however, when I began classes this semester, I realized that my professors do not teach that way anymore. There is some lecture, but it always has plenty of questions and discussion mixed in. Some sort of technology is a part of every class, whether it is use of the computer or watching videos and PowerPoint slides. The biggest change I see in teaching between thirty years ago and the present is the level of student involvement in the learning environment. Of course technology fits in with the student involvement perfectly. Letting students use their cell phones to create and complete class activites is a good example.
ReplyDeleteI am more like the out of date professors who use lecture as the primary way of teaching. The gap for me involves learning how to be an active learner as opposed to a passive learner. And of course that also involves learning to teach students who are active rather than passive learners. This is a big challenge for me to learn how to utilize all the technological processes available for the classroom.
I realize that if I want to be an effective teacher in today's society, I must be able to learn to use the most technologically advanced methods of teaching as possible. I also have to overcome my distaste of some of today's technology such as the social networking. I have to understand that my students do like these types of activities, and I should be able to discover ways to use them as teaching tools.
The video does an excellent job of pointing out the disconnect between education and the student. I think technology is a new medium that we must use to teach students. I like to think of technology and education in this way: the printing press. Now this may seem like a stretch but let me explain. When the printing press was first invented it was a break through. It gave the ability for the mass production of books and texts. The cost to buy a printing press or a product of the printing press was high. Only the well off and rich could afford this luxury. As time went on the prices fell and the availability of books became more common. Just like computers started out expensive and are slowly beginning to fall in price. Education (or what form of education existed) had to adapt. I wonder if the problems we face today are those of the educators or society faced as the printing press became more accessible. The point of this is to say that computer based technology is the modern day printing press. Except society and the ability to adapt is much shorter than the time society and education had to adapt to the printing press. We have to work to use this tool and not fear it in education. However it should be a tool and not the total of education. Education still exists in instruction. When books became available did we abandon instruction? Did teachers go 'just read your book you will get it'? Of course not (at least on a mass scale). The computer and the Internet is a new tool in education we must adapt to and learn to use. Teachers will still have to instruct and not make their students dependent on computers and Internet. This is a tool that will make education easier and not harder. Now at the level of students, we are in a period of transition. From the previous generations that watched the development of computers and the Internet to the recent generations that grew up on these resources. Like a transition society makes it will have its ups and downs. The people that teach at the college level are mainly those who have not learned this technology from the beginning. Our generation knows this technology and can find creative and useful education applications. The problems their video raises shows the growth pains any society goes throw when a revolutionary technology emerges like our digital age or the printing press. As students we need to use this as a tool in our studies. Teachers have to learn how to use technology to better instruct their students. But the essence of education is the same as it was before the printing press. We must instruct students properly otherwise they learn nothing regardless of the tools they have at their disposal. From the first textbook being in the classroom the information has been in the book and the student was assigned to read it. Yet students do not learn it. The revolution the Internet and computers represent is one that is as significant as the printing press mass-producing books. I believe technology will be successfully integrated into the classroom in my lifetime. My bigger concern is people believing technology can replace instruction. That maybe the bigger worry we need to address in the not to distant future.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, this video really convicted me and challenged me to be more technology-minded when trying to reach and teach students today. Somewhere I heard that in order for learning to take place, we must step outside our comfort zone. Students get "comfortable" and bored with the same teaching styles that have been around for ages. Within the classroom setting, technology broadens them and opens doors for them. Research is so much faster and communication is instant. Technology allows for some error room and provides aides for learning from those mistakes. More responsibility is placed on the student.
ReplyDeleteAs a college student, I feel as if some of the accountability is taken away whenever a computer replaces a professor. Technology needs to be a tool instead of becoming the educator.
We all realize that students need to taught in a way to reach them and a good way to do this in this day and time is through technology. I don't think students expect every educational experience to involve technology simply because that would take away the "human" element and if some students need anything, it's that. The college students in the video may have sent numerous e-mails, but don't you think a percentage of those were school related? I do think college students need to keep in mind that college, face book and the like MAY not be the real world and that there is more to life than changing your status 37 times a day - a future employer may not be impressed with that.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that teachers would welcome this "new found" way of communication called technology - think of what we have access to now! Instead of thinking of technology as a negative because we're not as "up to date" as we need to be, we should think of it as a challenge and a way to open so many doors in education. This may not happen overnight, but if teachers will make an effort to become more technology savvy, they and students will benefit.
As we all know, education, like our jobs, are what we make them. We can choose to have a positive outlook or a negative outlook about anything.
As a student, I feel that there has been so much emphasis put on using technology in the classroom that it is overwelming. I really don't see a point in requiring a student to buy a textbook that costs over a hundred dollers if they are not even going to use it. The internet has become such a useful tool in the classroom that it has almost done away with textbooks.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I feel that it is going to be difficult to keep up with technology because it has evolved so much. As teacher's get older I think it will be harder for them to keep up with the current trends in technology. When I become a teacher I hope to be able to keep up with the current trends in technology so that the students won't get board with the same way of teaching over and over.
After watching the video, I have realized that students need more technology in the classroom. Since the future is built around technology we as teachers need to get on board with the technology train. Students are more excited about learning when they are being interactive. Many teachers lecture straight from the book and the students lose interest quiclky. With the technology the students seem excited about learning. Technology pushes students to become more responsible.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching this video. This video says that students are completely involved in technology, and often teachers are not. This often makes problems for students during classes. However, I also feel that when tech. is being used it isn't the kind that gets students involved. I feel that no matter what teachers do it is always going to be more fun to check my facebook than to do a tech. assignment. But this is also part of being an adult. Sometimes you have to pick homework over facebook. Life isn't always going to be fun, and I think this video makes it seem like it should.
ReplyDelete