Ready? Get set. Go!
The purpose for this Blog is to provide a platform for discussion during an upcoming Instructional Media class. Students in the class will be here, but if you happen by or are invited to share, Please feel welcome!
In each Blog post, I will be sharing classroom experiences from my time in an elementary school in Washington state, where I will be volunteering during the month of January 2016. I will also be asking questions to illicit responses from the students in my course. Please feel free to respond!
I will be asking students to stretch themselves, and I always like to set the example by stretching myself also! I have never tried a Blog for class discussion. I am looking forward to this experiment.
Let's get started!
Question #1: I confess to being a "Digital Immigrant!" (Look it up if not familiar) I am probably getting ready to teach a class full of "Digital Natives." How do you think your experiences in the classroom (k-12) compared to mine?
Growing up I spent all but 2 years home-schooled. (And those two years were kindergarten and 1st grade.) The rest of my Elementary school experience was me being given worksheets or small writing assignments and A LOT of reading, and of course reading reports. I'm not sure how different our elementary experiences are, though I am sure you got more student to teacher interaction. My middle school and High-school experience is a little different. my parents decide to put me on a computer program which was a digital curriculum. personally I didn't like it very much, sure it was easy to use but it wasn't interactive, I also felt like it was too rigid for me. I didn't have an actual teacher to contact if I didn't understand something and if I didn't have assignment done by a certain due date I would fail it. This didn't give me the flexibility I had gotten used to in perusing a subject till I felt confidant enough to complete it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as technology, sometimes I have trouble navigating my own phone.... But I'm excited for this class and learning online with a real teacher who is facilitating the learning and is just an email away!
You bring up an important point! A digital curriculum did not take the place of a teacher. You and all other students need student to teacher interaction. Technology cannot take the place of a teacher and teaching.
DeleteI believe that I could be classified as a Digital Immigrant sense I did not have a computer or a color television. We listened to the radio and read a lot. My mom was an avid reader but was in charge of a telephone and communications network for one of the largest hospitals in Brooklyn. She was fully engaged into the beeper world for doctors and paging systems. She started out as a telephone operator using a switchboard with plugs. I can remember going to work with her and learning how to use it. Then they upgraded to telephone consoles with buttons. I also learned how to use a manual typewriter as well as an electric. Because of technology as a secretary I was introduced to the world of word processing and programs. My first computer was a Wang. When beepers became available to everyone, I had one. I can remember using a payphone which is now obsolete. My children are always amazed how we did not have cell phones and internet. The library and encyclopedias are dinosaurs to them. They think Google knows everything until they actually speak to someone who lived it. If it was not for online learning I may not have taken a second chance at school. I live in a city that requires a car to go anywhere so online was a saviour for me. I am familiar with website building and I have friends that have blogs. I also have an Examiner page that is in desperate need of being revived and engaged. Now my 22 year old daughter thinks that iPhone is the only way of communicating and everything else is an imitation. Sometimes, I like to escape all of this technology because it has brought too many strangers into my life. But it is important to stay relevant. I am glad to see people over 50 embracing technology and not allowing Generation X to deny their relevance.
ReplyDeleteAlso we have the ability to store and save data and information. Instead of paper we have gone from floppy to flash drives and now clouds. This can be overwhelming. We have to learn how to use all of these things safely. They are helpful with keeping important and personal information as well.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who are digital immigrants have stories to tell about technology that this generation finds hard to believe. I relate to everything you say here! I has been challenging to keep up, but those of us who have made the effort have many opportunities! I started teaching online over 15 years ago--long before most! I live in Colorado, am visiting in Seattle, and teaching for a college in Kansas--I certainly never saw that in my future!
DeleteHere's irony for you: I write a long comment here, explaining that even though I'm not nearly as technologically savvy as some (like my brother, who I call the minute I get stuck), I can still learn *pretty* quickly how to work a new program...IF I have someone walking me through it. (The online format of this class is definitely a challenge and a "growing" opportunity for me in that regard!) Here's where the ironic part comes in. I try to publish said comment, but somehow goof even that simple step up, and lose my mini-masterpiece entirely. Because of this, I'm going to renounce all that I've said up to this point and declare that I probably only THINK I understand technology, and that, in reality, it will be one of the biggest challenges in my future as a teacher! There--I've said it. (Now please work, Publish button!)
ReplyDelete--Hannah White
It happens to all of us! I am going to post another blog this week that talks about "when technology goes wrong." Even when we do understand technology, it doesn't always cooperate. Sorry you lost your post!
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