You are about halfway through the book study. I hope you are gleaning lots of useful tidbits from your reading and the comments of your peers. Here are the questions for the week:
1. In what ways has technology changed the socialization of our students since the days you were a student? A student teacher?
2. How do we see technology affect how our students access and generate knowledge? How does technology affect how we access knowledge?
3. How do we see technology changing our professional networks and knowledge?
4. How might we as a faculty or leadership team embrace these trends productively?
Next week's assignment: Chapters 6-7
Monday, May 3, 2010
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8 comments:
When I was a student, I socialized with my peers in person or on the telephone. It was done outside of school or during recess/lunch. Today, we all know that students, even the youngest ones, socialize in different ways using technology all all times. On page 86, second paragraph of this chapter, the author talks about social networking and the importance of the relationship, not the technology. I believe this is so important because learning is social. Wouldn't we maximize learning if students were able to socilaize using today's methods for instructional purposes? This author also talks about a participatory culture. When I was in school, there was no participation on the part of the student. The teacher lectured; I received the knowledge; gave it back to the teacher when asked. Today's kids want to participate - be engaged as compared to the traditional passive role of the student.
I was glad the author made a point to mention that lack time is a factor in making "intellectual and legal adjustments" to the introduction of technologies. So, I am looking forward to ALTs next year where the focus will be on 21st curriculum. This is important to use this time available to all employees of BISD to move us forward in 21st century skills.
As a student, I'm with Jaimie. Telephone and note-writing in class was pretty much it. And that was limited because there were 4 girls in my house with one phone! As a teacher, my communication was tree-killing memos in the teacher's box! I also honed in on the fact that HHJ emphasizes the "relationship" aspect of leaerning through technology, and not the technology itself. We must utilize our technology resources as a way to help our students communicate knowledge effectively with others. That is the real life skill that they will have to have in the real world. My dilemma is this: What is the appropriate way to use technology with 5-11 year olds in order to effectively share their knowledge? And how do we systematically change our evaluation practices within the classroom setting? Don't get me wrong. I have ideas and I share and encourage staff to utilize these different approaches. But it never becomes systematic. Very frustrating...........
This book study is a great example of what we are doing as a district to utilize technology as a social engine for learning. I hope that we can take this farther and act on it in the fall.
Are schools paying as much attention to the development of our student’s self-image as we are to how well they can use technology? Are parents addressing the human and emotional side of their child’s development as much as they seek to provide them with the latest high tech toys and gadgets?
For young people, social acceptance is critical. Part of growing up is learning to deal with rejection and, yes, even bullying. It was hard enough when students had to deal with such low-tech means of social interactions such as rumors, playground bullies, “slam books”, or notes passed in class.
Learning that your peers think you’re conceited, or ugly was hard enough to deal with when it was limited to a few classmates. With the introduction of such high tech means of communication as Facebook and MySpace, a simple rumor or put-down is now spread across the internet with the speed of light. It is now literally possible to be made fun of by complete strangers located around the world! Being threatened with real or implied violence by a cyber bully can be increadibly frightening to any child. The pressure this places on students can be unbearable at times – as unfortunately demonstrated by recent suicides due to cyber-bullying or hurtful comments made on social networks.
Here’s an interesting news item that ran earlier this week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVF77nQgxq8
Do you agree?
At first glance, I did. But upon reflection, I wonder if this isn’t a “head in the sand” response. This won’t make it go away or fix the problem.
Clearly these new social networking formats are in place and here to stay. Thus, our job becomes to help prepare students not only to deal with all of the positive aspects of new technologies, but also to deal with the ugly and dangerous uses that can occur in an all too often cruel world. Educational programs that help students deal with this situation must be put in place. And parents MUST learn to monitor their child’s social world and be trained in how and when to intervene.
Critically, we must – as a society – increase our efforts to help children develop stronger self-concepts and self-acceptance. We must all address the whole picture of how technology can be used for both positive as well as dangerous purposes. If we do not help students learn to love others as well as themselves, we risk allowing the malicious influences of technology to swamp the positive benefits.
Technology has changed so much since I was in school. I remember being in college and thinking that email was something I didn't need to know because I wasn't going to work in a technological field. As a student I talked with my friends through notes, in person, or on the phone. Now students can have complete conversations through text messaging. We do not take advantage of the technology or the social networking that students participate in.
I can tell you that Facebook is addicting and I completely agree with her that you learn all kinds of things when you use these social networking sites. Through Facebook I find out what kind of activities are taking place across the nation, I find out what others are doing and how they deal with their problems, I even get updated pictures of the weather. Without this type of technology, I would never interact with all of the people I do now. My Mother says that she doesn't understand why we have "friends" on Facebook who we don't really speak to, but the truth is that this power to belong is so powerful, we cannot deny it. I got about 15 Happy Birthday messages this past week from people I haven't even talked to in 15 years, and I have to tell you it made me feel good. In the classroom we have to realize we are competing with this. I agree with Greg that it is teaching students how to use this productively that will be most beneficial in the future. Before this book study, I didn't even begin to wrap my head around these issues, so I am very thankful that we are beginning the discussion here.
Alan November in his talk yesterday showed us so many ways we can put students in charge of not only their own learning but the learning of their peers. One of his criteria for return on our investment in technology is whether or not it contributes to the learning of the class not just individual students. Students come to us already knowing all the social networks. We need to catch up with them if possible and incoporate the technology skills they already have in the way we teach. I do want to comment on what Greg said about the bullying. It is an issue we have to address because it has the potential to be so harmful to our students. Like Greg said when it is posted to a site, the audience is so much larger. It is also instant.
DeeDee raises an important question about how social networking fits in with 5-11 year olds. I think there is great potential but must be done in a way that keeps kids safe. However, we are doing the kids a disservice if they are not able to use it at all.
I'm taking a suggestion from our librarian, Sherri Gamble, to have laptops at some of our campus professional learning dates and/or staff meetings next year to encourage the kind of live online dialoguing that was done when HHJ came to speak in BISD. It should be interesting to see what comes of that and how that kind of use of technology might move into the classroom.
This chapter introduced me to the fascinating field of biomimicry. Link below to a website with lessons for having kids learn and use concept.
http://asktheplanetcd.org/what_is_biomimicry.html
All of the previous comments on this chapter offer thoughts definitely worth considering. Our world and the way we communicate and socialize has changed no doubt. The challenge is to utilize the methods that students choose in the learning environment while keeping students safe from cyber-bulling. We (educators in general) can't control what students access so must at every opportunity educate them on proper use and channel their learning in appropriate ways at every opportunity.
Trying to understand why my 17 year old daughter spends so much time texting was revealed somewhat when reading what HHJ says about the importance of the relationship rather than the technology. It seems to me that Maddie can now have multiple conversations - relationship cultivating - with more than one person at a time whereas, phones or face-to-face conversations limits her ability to tend to her many relationships one at a time. I guess I don't know exactly what it should look like, but I feel that if we are to truly mirror society, then it behooves us to actively explore ways to incorporate social networks into learning. Wiki’s change our knowledge base hourly. I was looking this morning on line at some automobile related sites, and I noticed that the site had been updated within the last hour! Now, all of the books I have are out of date by the time they finally reach the hands of the consumer. For me, the big aha moment is that students are no longer dependent upon the teachers to “teach them what they need to know.” Students are fully capable of ferreting out information and most likely, having information that is more current than what we would traditionally present to them. The thing that concerns me most is that this is will require substantial paradigm altering. Teachers, not all, but many that I know, are comfortable with tradition and routines. It is my job to articulate ways to get them to move away from their comfort zones and begin embrace disruptive change.
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