Teachers or Robots? (11)

In this New York Times article, it is discussed how a degree from a postsecondary school is more and more necessary, but that it’s hard for students without the funds to afford the education needed to succeed. But, there are funds that are being put forth that will help with online classes and students with a lower income. However, it goes on to say: “Just how effective technology can be in improving education — by making students more effective, more engaged learners — is a subject of debate. To date, education research shows that good teachers matter a lot, class size may be less important than once thought and nothing improves student performance as much as one-on-one human tutoring. If technology is well designed, experts say, it can help tailor the learning experience to individual students, facilitate student-teacher collaboration, and assist teachers in monitoring student performance each day and in quickly fine-tuning lessons.” (source). Not only are these funds being put forth to aid in college courses, but they’re working towards helping K-12 as well. Though technology is a huge part of the next generation of students learning, there is also a strong demand for human-to-human contact, which some people are assuming isn’t going to be needed with all the advances. This is a very scary thought. Not only because teaching is a passion of so many people, but I think that more parents would be more reluctant to send their children to school where robots have taken over the classroom. Here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen any time soon, or preferably never.

Inconsiderate (10)

This New York Times article is from 2007, but it is still as relevant today as it was then. Like I’ve been saying in my posts thus far, teachers and professors from a different generation than ours are not used to the technology that we’re used to. We are used to having the internet and the ability to talk to anyone at our disposal at any given time. Older generations of teachers who are stuck in an era of chalkboards and clapping erasers don’t realize the necessity that we have associated with our cell phones and the perks that come with them.

In the article a professor takes a students (fake) phone and smashes it with a hammer because it went off in class. Ten years ago, I would have been in sixth grade and nobody would have had a cell phone going off. Now I know students as young as second and third graders are carrying cell phones, and no doubt trying to use them during class. Sitting in a college classroom, 9 out of 10 people are on their cell phones, most likely checking their social media site or texting their boyfriend/girlfriend about how they’d rather be anywhere but in that class. I am one of those people, but I only do it until the class starts, then I put my phone away. 

With this increase in technology within the classroom, not counting the ones that the teachers uses, there has been a serious decrease in respect. I’m not sure if it’s the parenting or the lack there of maybe that’s forcing students into completely ignoring their superiors and blatantly disregarding the feelings of the people around them. I know that when I’m a teacher I will let my students have one cell phone slide, but that’s it. More than once and something has to be done or the student will continue to walk all over me, and I will not have that. My theory is that if I’m putting in the effort to teach you without having my cell phone blowing up my pocket, you can do the same thing. Nothing huge is going to happen in 45 minutes, and if it does, you’ll either find out from me or after class is out.

Stealth (9)

Though this isn’t classroom technology related, it is education and technology related. This New York Times article is about the Educational Development Corporation would remove all its products from Amazon’s ‘shelves’ due to them being a “predator.” “Educational Development Corporation is a United States-based trade publisher of educational children's books produced in the United Kingdom by Usborne Publishing Limited (Usborne). The Company operates in two segments: Home Business Division (UBAM) and Publishing Division (Publishing). The UBAM division distributes books through independent consultants who hold book showings in individual homes, and through book fairs, direct sales and Internet sales. The UBAM Consultants also distribute these titles to school and public libraries. The Publishing division markets books to bookstores (including national chains), toy stores, specialty stores, museums and other retail outlets. It also owns the Kane/Miller Book Publishers” (source). In the article, it talks about how Amazon lowers the prices so much that the company they’re taking away from the actual funds of the company. Though EDC doesn’t sell e-books, they are noticing the substantial price cut with their physical books therefore they removed their 1,000+ books from the website to stop Amazon’s taking over of the company.

Are We There Yet? (8)

In this article, one line really stood out to me: “I am 34 years old and don't think twice about cordless phones or wireless remotes on televisions, but I bet they were a big deal when they first came out.” Obviously I am not 34, but I am 21. I’m not that far behind a 34 year old technologically. I was born into a technological age; my family had a computer as soon as they first came out, I’ve never gone a day without a television in my house where I don’t have to get up to change the channel, and cell phones have been second nature to me for the last fifteen years. However, not everyone was born into the technological age that I was. 

I had a multitude of teachers growing up that were around fifty or above in age. They were not born into a technologically advanced age that I was born into. I still hear from my mom about how she only had five channels growing up and she had to get up to change the channel. Of course I just roll my eyes and brush it off, but it does play a big part in the use of technology in not only the classroom, but every day life. My mom is an accountant and when her boss decided it was time to take taxes to the computer instead of doing it by hand, my mom boycotted; she wanted nothing to do with technology because she had been doing the taxes by hand for 25 years, so why change now? This is very similar to integrating technology into the classroom.

Similarly to my pervious post, educators who have a routine and are set in their ways without technology don’t want to be told that they need to bring technology into their classrooms after going 10, 15, 20 years without it. They need to be shown a pretty good argument as to why they should integrate it, and this article does a very good job of breaking down the reasons in a classroom friendly way. 

Old Dog, New Tricks (7)

“There can be infinite uses of computer and of new age technology, but if teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.”

This is a quote from Nancy Kassebaum (US Senate). I’ve been reading comments and blogs on technology in the classroom, and it seems as though “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks” is an appropriate fall back for teachers already in the system. Technology is a huge part of the fast-moving generation that we, as future educators, are a part of. We have to be the new face of teaching in schools, and technology is the way to be that new face. However, it’s easier said than done. 

With classes such as this one, we’re learning how to integrate technology into a classroom through reading about it, but without actually having a classroom to integrate it into, it’s not as easy to do as we would like. But, just the knowledge alone can help us. Therefore, we need to make sure that we take every opportunity that we can to bring technology into our classrooms. My question is though: If the district that you’re teaching in doesn’t have the funding or capabilities to integrate technology?

Not only does the economy that we’re suffering through right now hinder our abilities to easily integrate technology due to lack of resources, but there isn’t funding for professional development either. If a current teacher doesn’t know how to seamlessly bring technology into their classroom or better yet, doesn’t know how to teach through or work technology, how are they expected to have it in their classroom? Without the adequate funds and resources, it’s going to be nearly impossible for teachers who are used to working sans technology to just put it into their classrooms and not hit technical snags or simply not be apt enough in the technology to use it correctly.

Technology in the Brain (6)

I recently stumbled upon this New York Times article by Annie Murphy Paul, in which she talks about the importance fiction has on one’s brain. In several studies mentioned throughout the article, it is proven that fiction, the ability to remove ourselves from reality and place ourselves within another life, gives us more skills than just having the ability to read. One study shows that reading sensory words affects our brain the same way that actually having an interaction with those words would. Another study suggests that reading about an action affects the brain the same way that actually performing an action would. I have to say, these studies and this article have me wondering: are we focusing too much on actual technology and forgetting about the technology we all already possess? 

I’ve always been insanely fascinated by the way the brain and the human body work. I have also always been enamored with fiction. I love the way that authors have the ability to make their readers feel out-of-body. Something about being able to be someone else, to be able to live their lives and have their friends, or to be able to be there for them and feel what they’re feeling gives a reader the ability to be anything they want to be. But I feel like that comes with the ability to turn a page, to smell the crisp pages of a new book, and to feel the print on the paper. There’s something too artificial about reading from an e-reader, in my opinion, and because of that, I think that people aren’t getting the satisfaction of fiction and reading that they used to.

Along with that, since reading this article, I’ve given a lot of thought to where education stands in this whole dilemma. And I believe that education stands in the way of a student being able to feel the emotions that they should when reading. Teachers and professors force their students to read and think how they want them to about a book that they’re reading and because of that, students aren’t able to fully experience a story. Along with that, at least in my experience, teachers often show the movie version of the book at hand either while or after reading a novel. I hate when teachers do this. Not only are the students shown how the characters are expected to look and how the actions are expected to take place, the film versions are often very skewed versions of the stories. It takes away from what our brains give us creatively regarding the story.

This article gives us wonderful insight into how the technology of our brains is often looked past and brushed under the rug due to tangible technology taking over. There comes a point in our lives where we either have to stand with technology or stand against technology. In many cases, I stand with technology, but when it comes to the magic of books and reading, I whole-heartedly stand against technology.  

Technology "in" Schools (Interactivity #5) (5)

NETS-S Lesson Plan

For the purpose of this activity, I interviewed two separate teachers from two different school districts. One is a tenth grade modified English teacher and twelfth grade AP English teacher in Vernon while the other one is a fourth and fifth grade Special Education teacher in Wantage. Prior to interviewing them for this project, I had observed both classes, as well as helped out with their classes multiple times. Because I had done this before I knew about the technology standards, I didn’t know to look out for whether or not the districts seemed to be integrating the standards into their curriculum. 

When I interviewed the English teacher based on the questions in the NETS Adoption Survey, he seemed a little bit confused about what NETS was in its entirety. He quickly introduced himself to the standards and almost immediately told me that his district has not yet introduced NETS to them. He said that the district has introduced a technology initiative but said initiative was not nearly as specific as the NETS standards. He didn’t really go into the technology that is used in the schools, but he did mention the use of SmartBoards in some of the classrooms, as well as the use of technology as a device to further lessons. Further than that, there wasn’t much else that the district did that he knew of, or spoke of. 

The Special Education teacher was introduced to the NETS standards prior to talking to me, but she only really knew what they were and that was the extent of it. Since I digressed from the survey for her, she didn’t really talk about the integration of NETS into the district, but she did talk about the technology integration in her classroom. However, because she is a Special Ed teacher, her classroom and the other special needs specific classrooms, as well as the library, the computer lab, and the therapy (speech, physical, and occupational) rooms are far more technologically advanced than the general education classrooms. 

As far as I could tell, the technologies at these two schools were the most basic technological integrations compared to what I was expecting in regards to the NETS standards. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting considering I had been in the classrooms before and hadn’t noticed much other technology than the occasional SmartBoard use in Wantage and computer work in Vernon. In accordance to that, I guess I wasn’t surprised necessarily by the teachers reactions, but I was generally displeased with the integration.

As a future English and hopefully special needs educator, I would try to have the NETS standards more fully integrated because I think that they are important in this technologically advancing world that we live in. Of course, when I’m an educator the standards will probably be even different from these ones. I believe that technology in the classroom is extremely important, and in order for it to work, educators need to want it in their classrooms.