Just read this news item in the NY Times about a firm that offers online math courses to American school students.  A typical example of use of technology for objectivist teaching (refer chapter by Robyler).  Reading the article made me wonder why “drill and practice” style programs (like the one described) manage to get such good press.

Programs such as the one described in this article can easily be shown to get results (ie improved scores in traditional tests). Paul’s blog points out there haven’t been too many studies to prove the effectiveness of constructivist teaching approaches – I think the reason must lie partly in the fact that our assessment methods are still rooted in objectivist frameworks (at least in mathematics).

A conundrum that will no doubt face us as beginning teachers!

 References

Roblyer, M.(2006). Learning Theories as Bases for Integration. In M. Roblyer (Ed). Integrating educational technology into teaching.  4th Edtn. pp 36-52. Pearson/Merrill Prentice HallUpper Saddle River, N.J.

In response to Maree’s blogpost,

• We definitely need student teachers to be exposed to a range of technology tools and provided with opportunities to think about and experiment with various ways of using these in the classroom (similar to what we are currently engaged in as part of this course). If we have tried something at uni, we are more likely to use it in our teaching.
•  On an ongoing basis, we need to keep abreast of new tools/ technologies and their potential for use in an educational setting.  We could do this in a variety of ways – we could actively seek out information by subscribing to blogs of interest, reading, networking with like-minded peers etc.  Traditional professional development courses are also an option but likely to be behind the curve?

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/ 

Reading Tracey’s blog (Widening the divide between rich and poor, 10 Aug) alerted me to another issue that we as educators need to be mindful of – the notion of the digital divide!  The divide is the gap in (or inequitable) access to technology but also in familiarity/fluency with the use of digital technologies. 

The government’s initiative to provide each student with a laptop may address the issue of inequitable access to hardware but in my view access to broadband & software will still be an issue.  Further, students will start at different levels of technological fluency – which in turn will impact the ways in which it is used.  Another factor here in Australia, is the divide between rural and urban areas, which is accentuated because cost to access the internet remains higher in rural/regional areas.

 Add that to your ever-increasing list of things to watch for as a classroom teacher :-/   

I was reading Tania’s blog (Don’t carbon date digital immigrants) and agree that being a digital native is not necessarily about age. 

But it is surely no surprise that someone who has grown up with the technology is more likely to be at ease using it without even thinking about it as being technology (“…if you ask Net Gen learners what technology they use, you will often get a blank stare. They don’t think in terms of technology; they think in terms of the activity technology enables.” in Oblinger and Oblinger).

My 5 year old son can turn on the computer, navigate to Youtube and type in some key phrases to bring up his favourite video and think nothing of it.  My 71 year old father needs someone else to get his online newspaper on the screen and can just about handle scrolling down the page to read it.  I am 40 and somewhere in between J

So, whilst age is not a determinant, surely it is a strong correlate?