A Digital Nation

I just finished watching a Frontline special on PBS entitled Digital Nation.  It really got me thinking about if technology is a good thing or bad thing for today's society.  

One of the first things that really caught my attention was when an older woman said she went on her honeymoon years ago for 2 weeks and had no connection to the outside world.  She said that does not happen now a days because people are so connected by technology.  What a true statement.  People always have some type of phone or internet source with them at all times to stay connected even on vacations, which once were a time to "get away".  This was a great transition into talking about schools and how they deal with student's desire and need to multi-task using technology.  There was a study conducted in this video and the results showed that students who multitasked and did a few assignments at one time were slower at getting those accomplished than those who did one assignment consecutively.  I think that student's multitasking is just going to get worse with the more technology that will become available.  Although I believe that the school from the Bronx is trying to engage their students with the use of laptops you could see from the Assistant Principal's interview that the students spent quite a bit of time misusing them by going on websites they shouldn't or taking pictures of themselves.

The one thing that surprised me the most about this video was when the Korean student whose mother felt was addicted to video games and his grades dropped significantly as a result of the gaming had to go to a rehab program for 2 weeks.  I was shocked that they even had such programs for people addicted to the computer and computer gaming.

I think the lady from MIT said it best when she said "Technology isn't good or bad, it's powerful."  When I finished watching this video I came away from it pondering whether technology still should be incorporated into the classroom?  I think there's a lot great educational technological tools that could be utilized effectively in a classroom but as a teacher you need to find those tools that won't overshadow the child's learning goals.

Here is a link to the Digital Nation video if you care to check it out! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/#roundtable

Literature Review

The article I chose for my literature review was called How New Technologies Have (and Have Not) Changed Teaching and learning in Schools and it was from The Journal of Computing in Teacher Education.  There were two authors and their names were Richard Halverson and Annette Smith.  This document was written in 2010.   


One of the first things they discussed in this article was how in K-12 schools, teachers and other members of the school community have reacted to technology in two ways: banning the disruptive technology and using the technology to reinforce existing practices.  I see how teachers wouldn't want to encourage and allow students to text all the time on their phones or play around with their Ipods all class but since technology is very much a part of the students lives it should be embraced and tried to be utilized as a learning tool.  If technology is just being used to reinforce existing practices then it's not being integrated into the curriculum properly.  I personally believe that if you as a teacher are going to use technology it needs to be a more modernized approach to teaching, it can't just be a way to build off the old teaching methods like using a computer to show videos, using overhead projectors, etc which make the class teacher-centered instead of student-centered.  


I found it very interesting when they discussed that the percentage of internet in public schools jumped from 35% in 1994 to 97% in 2000.  That is incredible.  In 6 years almost all public schools in the US got access to the internet.  This shows the importance of technology and the internet in schools.  


This article talks about how teachers are more focused on test preparation than ever before.  This allows for little use of technology because the teachers feel pressured to drill information into the children to gain better test results than allowing them to use their creativity by using technological tools.  I see how hard it must be for a teacher to integrate technology into the classroom when they have the pressures to get their students ready for big state tests.  


It is amazing to me to read how many students are enrolled in Virtual Charter Schools.  The enrollment has grown from 31,000 in 2004 to more than 100,000 in 18 states in 2007-2008.  I have mixed feelings about schools that are all online.  I think it's great that the students are using technology to better themselves and to gain more knowledge but I think cheating may arise and its hard for a teacher to pick up on that when you don't even know what a student looks like or acts like in real life.  


I had never thought of fantasy sports being a learning tool before I read this article.  Students can really benefit from playing these fantasy sports.  When you play a fantasy sport you become the managers and are in control of the teams.  The person playing the fantasy sport tests hypotheses and really get to know the players in order to determine who they will put on their roster.  The fantasy sport player will collaborate with others in order to be successful.  It's crazy to me to have heard about fantasy sports for a long time but never really have thought of how much learning can come out of such a fun experience. 


I really enjoyed this article and learned many new things about technology in education.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Here is a link to the article so you may read it too!  http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ907118.pdf     

All teachers must provide equal access to the digital world to all learners.

Personally I feel that we can provide the students with equal access to the digital world by writing grants, as someone mentioned in class last night.  This would give the students the access to the digital world while they are in school but the question that I think arises is, how will you ensure that the student's will have access to the digital world when they are outside of school?  You could just give the students homework that would not require the use of technology but I personally feel the purpose of homework is to reinforce what you learned at school so you'd want the students to be using technology at home to complete an assignment if they were using technology in the classroom.  Whatever the technology is that the student is using at school and needs to bring home to complete homework maybe could be signed out so the students could then have access to the materials outside of school.  I understand that the students could forget to bring the materials back to school or it could possible get broken at the student's home.  Some students may have the technology they need to complete their assignments outside of school.  Other's may go to a local library to use a computer if that is the technology they are in need of outside of the classroom.  All library's are required to have internet access now a days. 


This statement was really hard to give a definite yes or no answer to.  I had to really think about how I would provide the digital world to all learners equally, which is no easy task.

K12OnlineConference

I recently attended the K12OnlineConference.  I watched a video from the presenter Ollie Bray.  This presentation was called "Using Computer Games as a Context for Learning and Social Interaction" and it was very interesting.  Teachers in Scotland used the video game, Guitar Hero, to help ease the transition children go from primary into secondary school.  Learning was disguised as a fun game but really they were learning lots, such as math, science, art, and more.  The students at the primary school were creating projects about certain rock bands they created to go along with the Guitar Hero game.  They were doing math problems to see how much money they would need to start up a band of their own.  As a art project the kids created their own musical instruments.  It was the video game that really got the students interested in music and ultimately learning.  I think this is such a creative way of teaching.  Students are learning skills they may really need some day if they choose to be in the musical field.  By using a video game as a template for learning the children really got into their education.

The second stage of the project was to gather children from the primary school and secondary school and have the students play Guitar Hero all together.  This helped the transition of moving schools for the primary education students.  The primary education students got to interact and talk with the secondary students so they would have friendly faces and maybe even develop relationships before they moved up to this new school.  I believe it is important for a student to be comfortable when going to a new school and this is a great way to develop that level of comfort for the primary education students.

I really think this is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom and to engage the students.  I believe that the students would not have got as much out of this project if they weren't allowed to actually play the video game.  

What is the single most important digital technology in my life?

     In my eyes the most important piece of digital technology I have in my possession is my cell phone.  Now that most everyone has a cell phone it is hard to think back to the time when I lived without it.  This past summer I was driving home from Maine on 101 and suddenly saw in my review mirror a car fly off the highway into the woods.  I quickly took out my cell phone and dialed 911.  If I hadn't had a cell phone then I wouldn't have been able to help that person in need.  It's situations like this that make me thankful I have a cell phone now with me at all times.  If there were no cell phones then it may have taken a long time for that person to get help, whereas with a cell phone the police and emergency crews are notified right away and help comes quickly.