So, it is fairly obvious that the point Kadjer (and CEHD for that matter) is stressing is this: Technology in the classroom is great! According to Kadjer, a lot of our students interact with many different technological models outside of the classroom (think video games, blogs, social networking, etc) and find this platform for communication to be extremely engaging. Technology provides students with endless options for expressing their opinions and ideas (photos, videos, graphics, etc) in tandem with traditional textual descriptions. The little personal experience snippets in the article that document how teachers saw drastic improvements in student engagement once technology was introduced was a little bit motivating, but I still found myself wondering...
How am I supposed to incorporate technology into my middle school classroom on the North side? Many of my students don't have access to the computers at home and reserving the computer lab at school appears to be quite difficult. How are we supposed to weave technology into our lessons when we don't have access to computers and we have no money to buy "the new tools that will help us produce new things" (Kajder, 8)?
I think Kajder's assertions are spot on; I do think integrating technology in the classroom would increase engagement and also expose students to new ways that they can express themselves and construct their work. I just don't think this idea is extremely realistic. I wish it was different and that educators had the appropriate technology in the classroom to participate in such projects as classroom blogs, websites, imovies, etc. But many of us don't. So I understand that technology is great and all, but I really wish articles that stress the importance of technology in the classroom would tell us how exactly we should weave technology into the classroom when we only have limited, if any, access to it.
I liked this Washington Post editorial. The author agrees that technology is useful in the classroom, but points out that it is currently only accessible to the rich.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/05/technology_may_change_all_scho.html
Hi Corrie,
ReplyDeleteBeing at Edina for my student teaching, I suppose I am unaware of how much access you actually have with techonology in your classroom. I know at Edina the teachers all assuem that the students have computers and knowledge of how to use and access them. However, the other day I had a student who asked me what Word even was when the teacher asked that she use it to type her essay. She does not have a computer at home, and she did not realize that most students did. Now this student had moved here recently from Mexico and she is certainly in the minority; however, she is still a student in that class and she is being overlooked.
For my unit on poetry, I was thinking about having the students do their final project on Voice Thread. I wanted them to recite their poem and find images that represents the theme or expression of their narration. However, is that realistic to expect my students to do that? Can I assume that they all have computers that they can work on consistently to get this done? And can I assume that the process of searching for photos and uploading them is not something that has to be taught?
Now in your classoom, do you at least have access to some sort of technology that you can present to the class? Do you have projector or whatnot? I know that students can not make their own Voice Threads or whatever, but it will still be effective to use things like this in the classsroom. Not only will students be excited but they will learn to decode this new literacies. Even if all you have is a VHS player, you can find ways to move content to that old technology, and you can do a lot of interesting and useful things. It is just a lot more work!