I just read an interesting article by Prensky (if you can ignore the repeated references to teachers who “look stupid”). He makes a valid point that technology is changing so rapidly that just as we think we’ve mastered a new technology, it may have already become outdated.  So rather than asking for training on some new technology (who does anyway? arent we all self taught on the things we do use?), we’d be better off learning from our students or letting them use the technology while we provide “evaluation, context and nuance to help the kids truly understand” (which we should already know how to do as teachers).

One of his examples: to use podcasting in our teaching we do not need to know how to podcast.  Students already know how (or can teach themselves and each other how to).  So we get the students to make a podcast and our job as teachers then is to listen to these podcasts, evaluate them and provide feedback to students on appropriateness of content.

Hmmmm…. Maybe.

The above approach wouldnt work for something like LAMS, where the teacher needs to “author” or create a lesson sequence for the students.  So teachers would need to get familiar with LAMS, if they are to use it in their teaching.

Also, even with things like podcasting or voicethread, whilst I agree that we do not need to become the “resident expert” in order to use it in our teaching, we do need to be familiar enough with it to be able to assess the possible uses for it in our lessons.  In that sense, we do need to keep ourselves updated with the new developments to the extent that we know what is out there and how it can be used.

Yesterday in class, Paul presented the use of comic book creating software (he used software from PLASQ, but there are others available too; unfortunately, I didnt find any that are free) to present mathematics content in comic book format as a way of engaging disengaged students.  What a fantastic idea!

I think the idea has great potential!  Think of asking students to create their own summary of a topic in comic book format.  If playing with technology or creative writing is their thing, this would tap into their interests and get them learning mathematics content at the same time. Their creations could be showcased and shared online with other students and the larger school community.  Thanks for the idea, Paul.

As I read more about technology in education – I am both excited and a little intimidiated by the possibilities.  Listen to my podcast. podcast2410

In my travels on the web, I came across this interesting blogpost that talks about mathcasts.  Essentially, a mathcast is a screen recording + voice from an interactive whiteboard.  There are some examples on the blogpost.

It is easy to see how such mathcasts can be very useful for students who may have missed a lesson or for students to use when reviewing previously learnt material before an exam.  Specially, for mathematics, where it is important to be able to see the working and/or setting out of a solution.

If we have the technology in the schools we work in, I’d love to try out mathcasts.  I can already picture how I could pre-record my lessons for when I am away on holiday

I just read Sue Waters’ blog on whether mobiles are THE tool of the future.  

While I was on prac recently, I was conducting a Jeopardy style game involving maths questions for a Year 8 class and I asked for a volunteer for a timekeeper (time allowed for each question was 1 minute). The student who volunteered for the role took out her mobile phone to use as a watch.  I didnt see any problem with this.  After all, the phone was being used to aid with the lesson.  (Also, I myself do not wear a watch and use my mobile phone as my timekeeping device).  So I was quite surprised when I got told off (albeit mildly) at the end of the lesson for allowing the student to use a mobile phone in class in violation of school policy!!!

Image: ‘Mobile Phone Addict’. Made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence. Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kengz/61892067/ 

Came across an interesting article in the NY Times about a school where every student has a laptop in class instead of textbooks.   Some of the issues raised are about how the teacher competes with a myriad distractions in gaining students’ attention and in getting students to discriminate and sift through increasing amounts of info.   In the end we need to put technology in its place. Have a read!

The idea that it is not acceptable for teachers to be technologically illiterate (see Karl Fisch’s blog post) is interesting, and one I agree with in principle. As educators charged with the responsibility of equipping our students for the future, we would be failing them if we continued to rely solely on traditional teaching methods and technologies.   

The workplaces of today (why talk of the future) use technology to a great extent and as a person who has recently moved from working in industry to a teaching career, I am appalled at how technologically backward our schools environments are.  Yes, we have computer labs in schools where students can go a few times a week, a vast improvement over a decade ago; but most school environments of today (and I am conscious that I am generalizing from one reference point based on my recent practicum) are way behind workplaces of today let alone the workplaces of tomorrow. 

Also, how can we expect teachers to really integrate technology into their teaching when they are not even provided a work computer at school?  At the school I went to for my recent prac, the ratio of computers to teachers in the math staff room was 1:3.

Just read Jamie McKenzie’s article “Stuffing technology into the curriculum” and agree wholeheartedly. The lessons he describes are typical of the ones I observed being used to teach students ICT. 

In one such lesson, students were required to enter a set of phrases into a search engine and record the number of websites returned into a table.  The lesson was aimed at teaching them how to use search engines and I am unclear how this outcome would be possible given the superficial nature of the task set.  To me this was a classic example of a lesson where students were supposedly learning to use technology but the learning if any was entirely incidental.  It was not authentic or intentional and in my books did not qualify as “meaningful learning”.

Jonassen’s paper advocates that technology use in the classroom should be as a tool to create meaningful learning.  He describes the characteristics of “meaningful learning” as being active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative and looks at technology in its broader sense as the application of scientific knowledge. 

Given this framework, we can think of examples of such use of technology, for instance, use of simulation to teach projectile motion (authentic, active and constructive), blogs/display posters to document learning (cooperative, constructive), and group-work in hands-on problem solving (cooperative, active, goal directed).

Reference