What are the opportunities and/or costs that you see when it comes to integrating technologies into the work that you do with the writers in your classroom(s)?
The biggest opportunity is the connection that students can have with other writers and publishers. The students can build skills that will be applied in the future generations. Students make meaning of media and digital literacy in many ways that they do not make connections with written and print formats. Students can also look back at their work as they get older. Once a student published their work on the internet, it is there forever. Students can benefit from this because students of all ages tend to lose their work. They can also benefit from collaboration (as Zeimeke states) with students of varied age levels. How cool would it be for the entire school to focus on one project, but to break it down into sections for each grade level? It would be amazing!
There are some costs associated with integrating too many technologies in the classroom. I have found that students lose the ability to find resources in the library and in print. They always head for their websites and digital formats. I also think that students have forgotten how to spell and construct sentences because there are so many "editing" programs given to them for free. I do value technology but still can be partial to printed texts that have been in libraries and shelves of bookstores for years and years.
I agree! All students tend to lose their work, which is why I LOVED using Google Documents. It could be frustrating, at times, because the formatting is definitely limited, but they could never tell me that they 'forgot' to turn an assignment because we would log into a computer and have them share it with me right then and there. And, they couldn't lose it! Even though you might think they could with the way these kids organized their documents (didn't think I'd ever spend 20 minutes teaching students digital organization skills, but I did). Some other benefits was the direct contact I could have with their work without invading their personal space. I could fill their pages with feedback and if they didn't want it to be there, all they had to do was hide the comments.
I have to mention this, too, because I am so guilty of this. Technology has led to a loss of grammar and/or spelling knowledge. I have an iPhone, which is pretty jam up about autocorrecting my texts. It has its days, but for the most part, Apple is on point with guessing what I meant to type. One day, I was writing a paper, though, and I kept getting so frustrated that red lines kept popping up under my words because of mis-moves on the keyboard. Every time I had to right clink on a word, I thought "this is so tedious!" At one point, I even thought, "WHY did that not autocorrect?" I, finally, had to step back and say, "Man, I am spoiled."
In my opinion, the most important opportunity provided by technology in the classroom is the opportunity to help students become more knowledgable users. Our students are going to be using technology and digital workspaces for the rest of their lives, and we need to teach them how to navigate and interact in those spaces in intelligent, meaningful ways. Many of our students will know how to post a Facebook status or a picture on Instagram. What they probably won't know is how to communicate with people on a blog or how to participate in a webinar. If our students are going to be contributing members of society, which hopefully they will be, then they need to know how to use technology in insightful ways. The first place they can learn that is in a classroom.
One fear I have with using technology in the classroom is that students might lose sight of, or might not even learn in the first place, more traditional methods. While I clearly just mentioned that the world is changing and students need to be equipped with the skills to live in our technological world, there's something to be said for sitting down and writing with pen and paper. It's very much the same idea Ladonna has. She said her students are losing the ability to find resources outside of the Internet. I want my students to have the skills needed to thrive in our ever-changing world, but I also want them to know how to complete tasks without the Internet and without a word processor. I hope to have a classroom that incorporates technology regularly, but that also values methods such as writing with pen and paper and using sources that come from places other than the Internet. Like Hicks says, we should first focus on the writer, then the writing, then the technology.
The best opportunity technology creates in the classroom is the potential to publish and share to a huge audience. This raises student interest and effort. I also think using technology in the classroom is essential to the world today. Everyone over the age of 8th grade is expected to be able to use a computer on at least a basic level. By high school they are expected to conduct research online. These are important and practical skills for students to learn and master before joining the working world.
One of the biggest concerns would be cost. Not every school district can afford books, let alone technology. If cost is not an issue, however, technology is something that everyone in school benefits from. While parent concern over their child being present on the internet could be an issue, I would think parents would love the opportunity to see their child's work.
An opportunity of integrating technology is it shows students the wide range of possibilities that lie before them. It allows them to connect what they're learning in class to the rest of the world. It shows them the great work that has already been done and feeds them ideas for great work they can give to the world. It also helps them approach and solve problems in many different ways. Teaching students how to use technology allows them to understand how it works and helps them to quickly adapt to huge inflow of technological advances.
However, concentrating too much on using the technology could take away from the lesson to be learned. My concern would be students focusing too much on what they are doing and forgetting about why they are doing it. Also, it could take away from doing things by hand and being able to see the physical final product. The advantages to doing things manually will always be there. One thing that saddens me personally is the fact that students are no longer taught penmanship.The final product of pen and paper gives work the kind of character that can't be achieved through technology.
I love that you mention the inter-connectivity that technology provides. Not only does it connect us to other people, but it also connects us to other ideas, events, and information that may have not been available to us otherwise! With the click of the button, we can search, find, and share information. With these resources we can definitely teach students to explore themselves in relation to the world. They can become contributors, collaborators, and innovators in many different ways!
I do agree with you that, though technology is a valid resource, it can be overused. I do worry that, in our shift to technology as inclusive, we may be excluding students who prefer the "old-fashioned" way. I think technology must be purposefully and intentionally used alongside penmanship. A multimodal learning environment comes to mind.
It seems like everyone has made fantastic points already. The ability for publication, a wide audience and the auto-save feature are things that are wonderful for student portfolios and connectivity to activity. It also opens doors for peer review, teacher/student relational development, processed revision and multi-modal lesson implementation. Not only being able to use technology with students, but having the capacity to teach them about what is new in regards to it by being ahead of the game will open pathways for a web of connectivity and respect from big desk to little desk. Technology is the language of the developing generation and if we as teachers cannot speak it fluently, then we will be the ones left behind.
I definitely agree with all of your points. I wrote in my post that if students know that they will be posting their writing to the internet, they will be more likely to make sure it is work that they can be proud of. Zeimeke discussed the importance of this, and I think that by having other students of the same age from other areas/districts OR students of different age groups looking at each other's writing and collaborating to improve is such an important step in the writing process that technology can be a bridge to that gap. I also agree with your point about "auto-saving". I teach 9th grade and one of my biggest issues is students losing their work. I have moved towards google docs because it is a way to instantly save their work and provide me, the student, and peers with intsant access.
Technology allows for numerous opportunities for students to connect with each other as well as with students in other locations and with an eye for being a good digital citizen. They are able to learn from other people besides just the teacher in front of the classroom. I liked that Zeimeke said that the technology allowed for differentiation in that once students learn how to use the tool, they can move at their own pace or figure out how to make the tool work for them that might be different than how their neighbor is using the tool.
I think that there is a fear that if we open students up to all kinds of technology then they will have more opportunities to put themselves out there, or open new doors for bad things to happen. But I think that if we have instilled in our students a sense of good digital citizenship, then we shouldn't worry if in a few years they are showing us how to use certain websites or apps because we know that they are capable of operating safely in a digital space. We do not want to dissuade students from using technology because some might find their voice there.
I loved Ziemke’s idea of a virtual bookshelf where students can publish their work. In my experience as a student, the “publishing” part of the writing process was often minimized or left out altogether because many of my teachers saw it as too difficult to accomplish. Writing in a public space—whether it’s posting on a blog or writing an e-book or tweeting a message to a favorite author—where students know someone is going to read and quite possibly comment on it, encourages them to take their writing seriously but also to take pride in knowing that their thoughts, stories, and ideas are important.
I thought Ziemke’s mention of note taking was also compelling. I have always thought of taking notes by hand as more beneficial for learners (myself included) because it is proven to help with memory. I have never taken notes on a digital device because I’ve found that I become distracted by misspelled words (oh, that dreaded red line), the format of the page, the typeface, etc. And if my bullet points start to go wonky, I completely lose my cool. I’m afraid that some of my students would have a hard time focusing on WHAT they’re writing as opposed to how it’s appearing on their screen. However, I understand Ziemke’s point about students now being able to speak their notes in their phones and “write” them on a tablet, which could supplement handwritten notes—but maybe not replace them altogether.
In my high school, I cannot remember a time where we completed the "publishing" step of the writing process either. We wrote because it was the assignment given to us. Therefore, our voices only reached the audience of our teacher and no one else. I like your thought process of how students address their writing assignments based on their intended audience. I also find myself being very nitpicky when my words or notes are transcribed on a computer screen.
Technology masquerades as both a blessing and curse. Technology has so much potential to build critical thinkers and writers, explorers, and investigators within a secondary setting. As teachers, our responsibilities to our students surpass the lists of literary texts that our districts requires us to teach. Our responsibilities also require us to educate our students to be the best versions of themselves. We must take the opportunity to educate students on both the good and harm that they can construct on the internet through their digital footprints and social media. In a classroom setting though, where the teacher monitors the digital actions of students, technology is a source of good. Whether your students have access to technology both outside of school and inside your classroom is a larger issue. Many schools push for BYOD (bring your own device) days, but how can teachers meet the common core standard of students publishing their work, when there are students who do not have access to technology?
If students do have access to technology, they are empowered by having their voices heard through online publications. Technology allows Zeimeke’s theme of “empower, write, repeat.” Zeimeke speaks of building a Student Learning Network which is not limited to the members inside her classroom. Membership is extended to students’ parents and authors of texts that students are reading. Recognizing technology as a tool (not a requirement) inside of a secondary classroom will both strengthened and further engaged the community of learners.
For me, one of the most powerful uses for technology is the ability for social expansion. Not only, can students interact with other cultures, authors, students, etc, they can also make their digital footprint at an early age. We have a huge opportunity as teachers to teach students how to safely and successfully navigate the digital world. At some point in their life, they will encounter these virtual mediums, so why not help them and guide them as early as possible so they can use these technologies as tools to build better understanding of themselves in relation to the world around them. Let them see the opportunities these technologies can provide and let them think critically within these spheres.
As much of a technology lover as I am, I can still list downfalls for days (I'll stick to two of my pet peeves). 1). The overload of technology tools. I used to go into my classroom ready to implement a new digital tool and then my mentor teacher would look at me and say, "Well, Google Docs can do the same thing and they already know how to use that." (To be fair, he never discouraged me, but man did he like to play devil's advocate!) And, it was true! Their are fifteen million versions of each tool. You'll never find the best one and if you do, it will probably be obsolete in the next few seconds. I think teachers who are huge advocates of technology (like me) need to remember that filtering our tactics can make the tools we do choose to use more powerful. 2). Typing. Okay, this is really petty (and probably situational) in relation to the bigger picture, but oh my. Students (or maybe just my students) have really lost the ability to type which is hard to understand because these students are supposed to be living in a digital world, right? In our district, the schools did away with typing classes because they figured that students spent so much time on the computer that they would naturally learn how to type. Seems logical. But, what happens when most students in your classroom have never had access to a home computer? Almost all of my students had cellphones, though, so they were fast texters, but two-fingered typers. This made digital writing hard to implement. A quick online journal took 30-35 minutes instead of the 15 I had planned for. Students could write on paper quicker than they could type and some even asked if they could type their essays (yes, their 2-3 page essays) on their phones… Like I said, this is probably situational and just a personal pet peeve, but add in three defective computers, one that dies in the middle of an assignment, and the multiple distractions that can't be avoided and wowzer--you're 'quick' assignment turns into an activity you can only explain as a technological learning process.
Megan, I feel your pain. There is nothing worse then having an awesome lesson planned, but the internet is down in your school or your classroom forgot to rent the laptop cart for the day. I would like to hope that one day all the bumps associated with teaching with technology will be fixed, but until then, as you said, it is a technological learning process for everyone involved.
Well, the opportunities are well stated by Ziemke in her approach to implementing the use of email and other technology among her young, impressionable students: first, what the class can see; then, what the family can see; finally, what all can see. Hence, we are drifting from one-to-one towards one-to-world, as she makes so abundantly clear (not to sound too trite). I guess this is an opportunity, if this is the kind of world we want, namely, where most of our conversations take place over machines rather than face-to-face. As for me, I like the way the old world was. Life was simpler; I seemed less stress-out and happier. Now, instead of sitting back in an easy chair, drinking a hot cup of tea, and reading a wonderfully complex piece of Greek philosophy, I have to worry about who might have sent me an important e-mail over the last hour or so, or who has blogged or tweeted, or whatever.
I guess I am of a different species of human being. I am too much of a Greek, Roman, Anglo-Celtic southerner to understand what all the rave is about computers. Are they helpful? Yes, I'm not denying that. However, I would like to be gently brought into this brave new world, rather than thrust into it, as propounded by the existentialists.
I have to agree that it is in some ways unfortunate that we now seem to have countless lines of communication that need checking as opposed to the face-to-face methods of the past. I also feel a tremendous pressure to constantly refresh me email and other web communication tools to make sure I haven't missed some crucial contact. This causes an increasingly younger and younger group of people to have their eyes glued to a glowing screen where they once would have been enjoying their surroundings.
When it comes to opportunities that arise with technology use in the classroom, the possibilities are essentially endless. Technology allows for teacher and student to learn side by side. Technology in the classroom can provide quick and easy publication opportunities, offer alternative/adaptive assignment options, allow international connections, increase digital literacy for student futures, and permit extreme ease of collaboration via Google Docs, etc. Though I think that there are more pros than cons, there are some costs of relying upon technology too heavily. To begin with, some students are likely to struggle with appropriate usage: is the online resource textually relevant and useful? Is the media being used most effective for the task? We must, as teachers, spend extra time teaching digital literacy, knowledge of effective media, and prevent overload. Even watching Ziemke, I wondered: how can you be effectively hopping between two laptops, an iPad, your phone, and a notebook? Studies have shown multitasking to be limiting. It's all too easy to be bombarded by technology. The ease of collaboration can allow for students to avoid putting in as much effort individually. I think that the costs can be overcome by smart planning and teaching strategies, but these can, if not implemented wisely, detract from a classroom.
I wondered at Ziemeke's use of multiple technologies as well as having print versions that she would edit too. I feel like there is so much potential to lose something or forget to save what you were working on. That type of multitasking really makes me nervous because I have the tendency to be a little scatterbrained at times anyway.
I think that the biggest advantage is that it provides students with great accountability. If students know that they will be posting their writing to the internet, they will be more likely to make sure it is work that they can be proud of. I also think this is such an easy tool for collaboration. As Zeimeke discussed the importance of this, I think that by having other students of the same age from other areas/districts OR students of different age groups looking at each others' writing and collaborating to improve is such an important step in the writing process that technology can be a bridge to that gap. In addition, technology also acts as a "holding spot" for all of the student's writing. A big issue that I have in 9th grade is students losing their work and not turning it in on time, and technology would be a way to store all of their writing into a bank of some sort. On the other hand, there can possibly be some consequences when implementing technology. I have found that you really have to go through the technology and use it yourself before trying to implement it into your classroom. You need to be prepared to answer any assortment of questions as well as make sure that the technology supports the lesson. Sometimes technology is implemented into the classroom just for the sake of "implementing technology", a buzz word in a lot of schools, but if the technology application doesn't enrich the lesson then its purpose is lacking. Technology applications need to match the lesson and enhance its effectiveness to make its implementation meaningful.
I do like that technology can hold all the students' work so that there is no "dog ate my homework" excuse, but it does need to be intentionally used and monitored. When I was in high school, teachers used technology just to say that they have used it and it wasn't beneficial to me at all.
I tend to agree with the general consensus that technology has essentially countless uses within a classroom, provided the teacher thoughtfully considers the purpose and implications of the particular technology. For every critical skill that students need to learn, there appears to be multiple technological platforms to promote thinking about the skill. Different technologies can be excellent supplemental tools, and as such I plan to integrate technology in some measure into my classroom through both teacher and student use for the purposes of engaging students with the material and educating them about life in a digital world. Viewing, assessing, integrating, citing, researching other people's online content provides amazing and ample educational opportunities, so all of that seems like fair game to me. However, I have serious qualms with forcing students into creating identities in digital spaces, so I think I should always have an analog version of any generative assignment available. I believe it's outside the rights of any teacher to mandate that students create content on a digital platform without a complete understanding of the privacy rights of that platform. Who can see the student work? How can they see it? Where is it saved and stored? Can it be deleted if necessary? Who controls the rights to the information once it's posted? I feel like all of those questions must be easily answered and explainable to both students and parents, and I'm not 100% sure that I have the legal know-how to navigate the privacy policy of multiple websites in a timely manner. In terms of planning as a first year teacher, that seems like quite a lot of time and effort when I have so many other things to consider beyond the privacy policies of multiple digital spaces, so I don't imagine that I'll require lots and lots of digital work, though digital options may be offered with some regularity. I'm also not sure about the whole idea of integrating filmmaking as a requirement into classes. It just seems too far outside the purview of English classes to require it when there are so many other ways to assess the skills that filmmaking promotes which all apply more readily to life outside of school: namely, reading and writing activities. It could function great as an option in a multi-platform portfolio project, but not as the standalone focal point of any cumulative assignment.
With our (I use the term loosely) generation being the last to be born outside the web, I think we are at great risk of falling further and further behind the learning curve while students will thrive more effortlessly with each passing year. So I think there is concern with looking outdated if you are not constantly mastering and remastering technology, which can get you to a point with your students where they start to roll their eyes and lose interest when you sound like their grandparents when speaking about technology.
On the other hand, having students use technology allows them to travel outside the information the school has on hand and find their own research. Helping students navigate the internet also sets them up to be more thoughtful and wary citizens of the digital world as they learn what is and is not good source material. I think using the internet as a research AND creative tool has far more benefits than costs and risks, and I think as new teachers we will have to learn to negotiate those negatives but it will be well worth it to have more well-rounded and informed students.
I think the best reason to use technology in the classroom is because it prepares students for a world that is consistently becoming more and more online. Virtually every method of technology that human beings have created has now developed an electronic version. There are online art tools, online letters, online musical tools, and the list goes on and on. If we start students with using technology at the school-aged level, then they will have developed some level of mastery of the medium by the time they graduate, leading them to be advanced members of 21st century society. As was mentioned in the webinar, and as my fellow classmates have also mentioned, technology in the classroom allows student writing to move away from the one-on-one model and move towards the one-on-world model. Where the audience for our students' work might once have been limited to peers in the class and the teacher, thanks to new technologies and the nature of the web, students' audiences can be limitless.
A major challenge to using technology would be privacy issues. The more presence that students have on the web the more opportunities there are for mistakes in anonymity and the potentiality for unwanted contact is raised. The art of internet and technology safety must be taught with the same level of importance as the curriculum itself.
The biggest opportunity is the connection that students can have with other writers and publishers. The students can build skills that will be applied in the future generations. Students make meaning of media and digital literacy in many ways that they do not make connections with written and print formats. Students can also look back at their work as they get older. Once a student published their work on the internet, it is there forever. Students can benefit from this because students of all ages tend to lose their work. They can also benefit from collaboration (as Zeimeke states) with students of varied age levels. How cool would it be for the entire school to focus on one project, but to break it down into sections for each grade level? It would be amazing!
ReplyDeleteThere are some costs associated with integrating too many technologies in the classroom. I have found that students lose the ability to find resources in the library and in print. They always head for their websites and digital formats. I also think that students have forgotten how to spell and construct sentences because there are so many "editing" programs given to them for free. I do value technology but still can be partial to printed texts that have been in libraries and shelves of bookstores for years and years.
I agree! All students tend to lose their work, which is why I LOVED using Google Documents. It could be frustrating, at times, because the formatting is definitely limited, but they could never tell me that they 'forgot' to turn an assignment because we would log into a computer and have them share it with me right then and there. And, they couldn't lose it! Even though you might think they could with the way these kids organized their documents (didn't think I'd ever spend 20 minutes teaching students digital organization skills, but I did). Some other benefits was the direct contact I could have with their work without invading their personal space. I could fill their pages with feedback and if they didn't want it to be there, all they had to do was hide the comments.
DeleteI have to mention this, too, because I am so guilty of this. Technology has led to a loss of grammar and/or spelling knowledge. I have an iPhone, which is pretty jam up about autocorrecting my texts. It has its days, but for the most part, Apple is on point with guessing what I meant to type. One day, I was writing a paper, though, and I kept getting so frustrated that red lines kept popping up under my words because of mis-moves on the keyboard. Every time I had to right clink on a word, I thought "this is so tedious!" At one point, I even thought, "WHY did that not autocorrect?" I, finally, had to step back and say, "Man, I am spoiled."
In my opinion, the most important opportunity provided by technology in the classroom is the opportunity to help students become more knowledgable users. Our students are going to be using technology and digital workspaces for the rest of their lives, and we need to teach them how to navigate and interact in those spaces in intelligent, meaningful ways. Many of our students will know how to post a Facebook status or a picture on Instagram. What they probably won't know is how to communicate with people on a blog or how to participate in a webinar. If our students are going to be contributing members of society, which hopefully they will be, then they need to know how to use technology in insightful ways. The first place they can learn that is in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteOne fear I have with using technology in the classroom is that students might lose sight of, or might not even learn in the first place, more traditional methods. While I clearly just mentioned that the world is changing and students need to be equipped with the skills to live in our technological world, there's something to be said for sitting down and writing with pen and paper. It's very much the same idea Ladonna has. She said her students are losing the ability to find resources outside of the Internet. I want my students to have the skills needed to thrive in our ever-changing world, but I also want them to know how to complete tasks without the Internet and without a word processor. I hope to have a classroom that incorporates technology regularly, but that also values methods such as writing with pen and paper and using sources that come from places other than the Internet. Like Hicks says, we should first focus on the writer, then the writing, then the technology.
The best opportunity technology creates in the classroom is the potential to publish and share to a huge audience. This raises student interest and effort. I also think using technology in the classroom is essential to the world today. Everyone over the age of 8th grade is expected to be able to use a computer on at least a basic level. By high school they are expected to conduct research online. These are important and practical skills for students to learn and master before joining the working world.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest concerns would be cost. Not every school district can afford books, let alone technology. If cost is not an issue, however, technology is something that everyone in school benefits from. While parent concern over their child being present on the internet could be an issue, I would think parents would love the opportunity to see their child's work.
An opportunity of integrating technology is it shows students the wide range of possibilities that lie before them. It allows them to connect what they're learning in class to the rest of the world. It shows them the great work that has already been done and feeds them ideas for great work they can give to the world. It also helps them approach and solve problems in many different ways. Teaching students how to use technology allows them to understand how it works and helps them to quickly adapt to huge inflow of technological advances.
ReplyDeleteHowever, concentrating too much on using the technology could take away from the lesson to be learned. My concern would be students focusing too much on what they are doing and forgetting about why they are doing it. Also, it could take away from doing things by hand and being able to see the physical final product. The advantages to doing things manually will always be there. One thing that saddens me personally is the fact that students are no longer taught penmanship.The final product of pen and paper gives work the kind of character that can't be achieved through technology.
I love that you mention the inter-connectivity that technology provides. Not only does it connect us to other people, but it also connects us to other ideas, events, and information that may have not been available to us otherwise! With the click of the button, we can search, find, and share information. With these resources we can definitely teach students to explore themselves in relation to the world. They can become contributors, collaborators, and innovators in many different ways!
DeleteI do agree with you that, though technology is a valid resource, it can be overused. I do worry that, in our shift to technology as inclusive, we may be excluding students who prefer the "old-fashioned" way. I think technology must be purposefully and intentionally used alongside penmanship. A multimodal learning environment comes to mind.
DeleteIt seems like everyone has made fantastic points already. The ability for publication, a wide audience and the auto-save feature are things that are wonderful for student portfolios and connectivity to activity. It also opens doors for peer review, teacher/student relational development, processed revision and multi-modal lesson implementation. Not only being able to use technology with students, but having the capacity to teach them about what is new in regards to it by being ahead of the game will open pathways for a web of connectivity and respect from big desk to little desk. Technology is the language of the developing generation and if we as teachers cannot speak it fluently, then we will be the ones left behind.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with all of your points. I wrote in my post that if students know that they will be posting their writing to the internet, they will be more likely to make sure it is work that they can be proud of. Zeimeke discussed the importance of this, and I think that by having other students of the same age from other areas/districts OR students of different age groups looking at each other's writing and collaborating to improve is such an important step in the writing process that technology can be a bridge to that gap. I also agree with your point about "auto-saving". I teach 9th grade and one of my biggest issues is students losing their work. I have moved towards google docs because it is a way to instantly save their work and provide me, the student, and peers with intsant access.
DeleteTechnology allows for numerous opportunities for students to connect with each other as well as with students in other locations and with an eye for being a good digital citizen. They are able to learn from other people besides just the teacher in front of the classroom. I liked that Zeimeke said that the technology allowed for differentiation in that once students learn how to use the tool, they can move at their own pace or figure out how to make the tool work for them that might be different than how their neighbor is using the tool.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a fear that if we open students up to all kinds of technology then they will have more opportunities to put themselves out there, or open new doors for bad things to happen. But I think that if we have instilled in our students a sense of good digital citizenship, then we shouldn't worry if in a few years they are showing us how to use certain websites or apps because we know that they are capable of operating safely in a digital space. We do not want to dissuade students from using technology because some might find their voice there.
I loved Ziemke’s idea of a virtual bookshelf where students can publish their work. In my experience as a student, the “publishing” part of the writing process was often minimized or left out altogether because many of my teachers saw it as too difficult to accomplish. Writing in a public space—whether it’s posting on a blog or writing an e-book or tweeting a message to a favorite author—where students know someone is going to read and quite possibly comment on it, encourages them to take their writing seriously but also to take pride in knowing that their thoughts, stories, and ideas are important.
ReplyDeleteI thought Ziemke’s mention of note taking was also compelling. I have always thought of taking notes by hand as more beneficial for learners (myself included) because it is proven to help with memory. I have never taken notes on a digital device because I’ve found that I become distracted by misspelled words (oh, that dreaded red line), the format of the page, the typeface, etc. And if my bullet points start to go wonky, I completely lose my cool. I’m afraid that some of my students would have a hard time focusing on WHAT they’re writing as opposed to how it’s appearing on their screen. However, I understand Ziemke’s point about students now being able to speak their notes in their phones and “write” them on a tablet, which could supplement handwritten notes—but maybe not replace them altogether.
In my high school, I cannot remember a time where we completed the "publishing" step of the writing process either. We wrote because it was the assignment given to us. Therefore, our voices only reached the audience of our teacher and no one else. I like your thought process of how students address their writing assignments based on their intended audience. I also find myself being very nitpicky when my words or notes are transcribed on a computer screen.
DeleteTechnology masquerades as both a blessing and curse. Technology has so much potential to build critical thinkers and writers, explorers, and investigators within a secondary setting. As teachers, our responsibilities to our students surpass the lists of literary texts that our districts requires us to teach. Our responsibilities also require us to educate our students to be the best versions of themselves. We must take the opportunity to educate students on both the good and harm that they can construct on the internet through their digital footprints and social media. In a classroom setting though, where the teacher monitors the digital actions of students, technology is a source of good. Whether your students have access to technology both outside of school and inside your classroom is a larger issue. Many schools push for BYOD (bring your own device) days, but how can teachers meet the common core standard of students publishing their work, when there are students who do not have access to technology?
ReplyDeleteIf students do have access to technology, they are empowered by having their voices heard through online publications. Technology allows Zeimeke’s theme of “empower, write, repeat.” Zeimeke speaks of building a Student Learning Network which is not limited to the members inside her classroom. Membership is extended to students’ parents and authors of texts that students are reading. Recognizing technology as a tool (not a requirement) inside of a secondary classroom will both strengthened and further engaged the community of learners.
For me, one of the most powerful uses for technology is the ability for social expansion. Not only, can students interact with other cultures, authors, students, etc, they can also make their digital footprint at an early age. We have a huge opportunity as teachers to teach students how to safely and successfully navigate the digital world. At some point in their life, they will encounter these virtual mediums, so why not help them and guide them as early as possible so they can use these technologies as tools to build better understanding of themselves in relation to the world around them. Let them see the opportunities these technologies can provide and let them think critically within these spheres.
ReplyDeleteAs much of a technology lover as I am, I can still list downfalls for days (I'll stick to two of my pet peeves). 1). The overload of technology tools. I used to go into my classroom ready to implement a new digital tool and then my mentor teacher would look at me and say, "Well, Google Docs can do the same thing and they already know how to use that." (To be fair, he never discouraged me, but man did he like to play devil's advocate!) And, it was true! Their are fifteen million versions of each tool. You'll never find the best one and if you do, it will probably be obsolete in the next few seconds. I think teachers who are huge advocates of technology (like me) need to remember that filtering our tactics can make the tools we do choose to use more powerful. 2). Typing. Okay, this is really petty (and probably situational) in relation to the bigger picture, but oh my. Students (or maybe just my students) have really lost the ability to type which is hard to understand because these students are supposed to be living in a digital world, right? In our district, the schools did away with typing classes because they figured that students spent so much time on the computer that they would naturally learn how to type. Seems logical. But, what happens when most students in your classroom have never had access to a home computer? Almost all of my students had cellphones, though, so they were fast texters, but two-fingered typers. This made digital writing hard to implement. A quick online journal took 30-35 minutes instead of the 15 I had planned for. Students could write on paper quicker than they could type and some even asked if they could type their essays (yes, their 2-3 page essays) on their phones… Like I said, this is probably situational and just a personal pet peeve, but add in three defective computers, one that dies in the middle of an assignment, and the multiple distractions that can't be avoided and wowzer--you're 'quick' assignment turns into an activity you can only explain as a technological learning process.
Megan, I feel your pain. There is nothing worse then having an awesome lesson planned, but the internet is down in your school or your classroom forgot to rent the laptop cart for the day. I would like to hope that one day all the bumps associated with teaching with technology will be fixed, but until then, as you said, it is a technological learning process for everyone involved.
DeleteWell, the opportunities are well stated by Ziemke in her approach to implementing the use of email and other technology among her young, impressionable students: first, what the class can see; then, what the family can see; finally, what all can see. Hence, we are drifting from one-to-one towards one-to-world, as she makes so abundantly clear (not to sound too trite). I guess this is an opportunity, if this is the kind of world we want, namely, where most of our conversations take place over machines rather than face-to-face. As for me, I like the way the old world was. Life was simpler; I seemed less stress-out and happier. Now, instead of sitting back in an easy chair, drinking a hot cup of tea, and reading a wonderfully complex piece of Greek philosophy, I have to worry about who might have sent me an important e-mail over the last hour or so, or who has blogged or tweeted, or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am of a different species of human being. I am too much of a Greek, Roman, Anglo-Celtic southerner to understand what all the rave is about computers. Are they helpful? Yes, I'm not denying that. However, I would like to be gently brought into this brave new world, rather than thrust into it, as propounded by the existentialists.
I have to agree that it is in some ways unfortunate that we now seem to have countless lines of communication that need checking as opposed to the face-to-face methods of the past. I also feel a tremendous pressure to constantly refresh me email and other web communication tools to make sure I haven't missed some crucial contact. This causes an increasingly younger and younger group of people to have their eyes glued to a glowing screen where they once would have been enjoying their surroundings.
DeleteWhen it comes to opportunities that arise with technology use in the classroom, the possibilities are essentially endless. Technology allows for teacher and student to learn side by side. Technology in the classroom can provide quick and easy publication opportunities, offer alternative/adaptive assignment options, allow international connections, increase digital literacy for student futures, and permit extreme ease of collaboration via Google Docs, etc. Though I think that there are more pros than cons, there are some costs of relying upon technology too heavily. To begin with, some students are likely to struggle with appropriate usage: is the online resource textually relevant and useful? Is the media being used most effective for the task? We must, as teachers, spend extra time teaching digital literacy, knowledge of effective media, and prevent overload. Even watching Ziemke, I wondered: how can you be effectively hopping between two laptops, an iPad, your phone, and a notebook? Studies have shown multitasking to be limiting. It's all too easy to be bombarded by technology. The ease of collaboration can allow for students to avoid putting in as much effort individually. I think that the costs can be overcome by smart planning and teaching strategies, but these can, if not implemented wisely, detract from a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI wondered at Ziemeke's use of multiple technologies as well as having print versions that she would edit too. I feel like there is so much potential to lose something or forget to save what you were working on. That type of multitasking really makes me nervous because I have the tendency to be a little scatterbrained at times anyway.
DeleteI think that the biggest advantage is that it provides students with great accountability. If students know that they will be posting their writing to the internet, they will be more likely to make sure it is work that they can be proud of. I also think this is such an easy tool for collaboration. As Zeimeke discussed the importance of this, I think that by having other students of the same age from other areas/districts OR students of different age groups looking at each others' writing and collaborating to improve is such an important step in the writing process that technology can be a bridge to that gap. In addition, technology also acts as a "holding spot" for all of the student's writing. A big issue that I have in 9th grade is students losing their work and not turning it in on time, and technology would be a way to store all of their writing into a bank of some sort.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there can possibly be some consequences when implementing technology. I have found that you really have to go through the technology and use it yourself before trying to implement it into your classroom. You need to be prepared to answer any assortment of questions as well as make sure that the technology supports the lesson. Sometimes technology is implemented into the classroom just for the sake of "implementing technology", a buzz word in a lot of schools, but if the technology application doesn't enrich the lesson then its purpose is lacking. Technology applications need to match the lesson and enhance its effectiveness to make its implementation meaningful.
I do like that technology can hold all the students' work so that there is no "dog ate my homework" excuse, but it does need to be intentionally used and monitored. When I was in high school, teachers used technology just to say that they have used it and it wasn't beneficial to me at all.
DeleteI tend to agree with the general consensus that technology has essentially countless uses within a classroom, provided the teacher thoughtfully considers the purpose and implications of the particular technology. For every critical skill that students need to learn, there appears to be multiple technological platforms to promote thinking about the skill. Different technologies can be excellent supplemental tools, and as such I plan to integrate technology in some measure into my classroom through both teacher and student use for the purposes of engaging students with the material and educating them about life in a digital world.
ReplyDeleteViewing, assessing, integrating, citing, researching other people's online content provides amazing and ample educational opportunities, so all of that seems like fair game to me. However, I have serious qualms with forcing students into creating identities in digital spaces, so I think I should always have an analog version of any generative assignment available. I believe it's outside the rights of any teacher to mandate that students create content on a digital platform without a complete understanding of the privacy rights of that platform. Who can see the student work? How can they see it? Where is it saved and stored? Can it be deleted if necessary? Who controls the rights to the information once it's posted? I feel like all of those questions must be easily answered and explainable to both students and parents, and I'm not 100% sure that I have the legal know-how to navigate the privacy policy of multiple websites in a timely manner. In terms of planning as a first year teacher, that seems like quite a lot of time and effort when I have so many other things to consider beyond the privacy policies of multiple digital spaces, so I don't imagine that I'll require lots and lots of digital work, though digital options may be offered with some regularity. I'm also not sure about the whole idea of integrating filmmaking as a requirement into classes. It just seems too far outside the purview of English classes to require it when there are so many other ways to assess the skills that filmmaking promotes which all apply more readily to life outside of school: namely, reading and writing activities. It could function great as an option in a multi-platform portfolio project, but not as the standalone focal point of any cumulative assignment.
With our (I use the term loosely) generation being the last to be born outside the web, I think we are at great risk of falling further and further behind the learning curve while students will thrive more effortlessly with each passing year. So I think there is concern with looking outdated if you are not constantly mastering and remastering technology, which can get you to a point with your students where they start to roll their eyes and lose interest when you sound like their grandparents when speaking about technology.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, having students use technology allows them to travel outside the information the school has on hand and find their own research. Helping students navigate the internet also sets them up to be more thoughtful and wary citizens of the digital world as they learn what is and is not good source material. I think using the internet as a research AND creative tool has far more benefits than costs and risks, and I think as new teachers we will have to learn to negotiate those negatives but it will be well worth it to have more well-rounded and informed students.
I think the best reason to use technology in the classroom is because it prepares students for a world that is consistently becoming more and more online. Virtually every method of technology that human beings have created has now developed an electronic version. There are online art tools, online letters, online musical tools, and the list goes on and on. If we start students with using technology at the school-aged level, then they will have developed some level of mastery of the medium by the time they graduate, leading them to be advanced members of 21st century society. As was mentioned in the webinar, and as my fellow classmates have also mentioned, technology in the classroom allows student writing to move away from the one-on-one model and move towards the one-on-world model. Where the audience for our students' work might once have been limited to peers in the class and the teacher, thanks to new technologies and the nature of the web, students' audiences can be limitless.
ReplyDeleteA major challenge to using technology would be privacy issues. The more presence that students have on the web the more opportunities there are for mistakes in anonymity and the potentiality for unwanted contact is raised. The art of internet and technology safety must be taught with the same level of importance as the curriculum itself.