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.

Interactivity #4 (4)

Lesson Plan Analysis Map

The reason that I chose this lesson plan if because of the vocabulary that is required of the students and for the integration of technology that is so relevant to the filmmaking aspect of the lesson. Not only is the teacher required to use technology and understand what they're doing, but the students also have to understand and use the technology that they're given. Also, the students are required to work together, go out and do something outside of the classroom, and they need to be able to integrate what they’re learning in the classroom to what they’re filming outside of the classroom. Integration of classroom and technology is a huge part of this lesson plan.

There were some evident gaps. It was hard to rally in the lesson plan since it is such a drawn out lesson, taking up more than two weeks of class time, but once I got a handle on it, it was easier to pinpoint what needed to be added where. I noticed that there wasn’t much student involvement in the lesson until they had to film, so I added some more group work, as well as more teacher-student collaborations before the end product was due. The students and teachers need to work pretty closely with one-another on this project so in order for that to happen, they needed to have more connectivity during instead of just at the end.

The curriculum goal is to have a finished film as the end product of this two-week lesson, therefore film equipment, editing software, computers, and projectors, Smartboards, or some other kind of viewing stations were a vital necessity to the end result of this lesson. In order for the students to succeed with this project, technology both as part of their involvement and the teachers involvement was extremely important.

Reflecting (Interactivity #3) (3)

      As an English major, it doesn't surprise me that most of our technologies are under the "authoring" category. It was a little bit difficult to find technologies that were specifically related to English education initially. However, upon further research, I found a significant amount of technologies that were not necessarily specific to English education but could easily be used specifically for English classes. Many of our technologies are self-expression websites in the form of social networking, such as Tumblr and Think. These technologies are great both for the classroom and for outside of the classroom. They allow students to express themselves and to connect with people that are simply doing the same thing as they are: expressing themselves. Most websites like that are non-judgement zones, therefore giving the students a safe haven. As a collective group of technologies, I think that we chose technologies that are both relevant to the classroom and to the outside world. Many of them, though not specifically, involove some form of social networking which help the students to connect with other students that maybe aren’t in the same year or the same district as they are. Though social networking sites aren’t always condoned by educational professionals, the ones that we picked as a group are beneficial to a students education as well as with their personal lives. With the advances in educational technology being in the forefront of everything in this day and age, we as future educators need to accept and respond to them, and figure out a way to integrate them into our classroom. These technologies will definitely be making their way (if they haven’t already) into classrooms across the country, and most definitely ours when we start teaching, so opening our eyes to them now if only benefitting us and our future students.

"How Far We've Come" (Interactivity #2) (2)

With the advancements in technology, soon enough students won't know how to do anything by hand and they will solely rely on technology to do everything for them.

Source:
http://liz-meyer.com/2695755/NY-Times-RFD-Evolution

90's Kid Technology (Interactivity #1) (1)

I like to refer to myself as a “90’s kid.” That label says a lot about the generation that I am growing up with. We, as children, grew up in a time filled with technological discoveries and developments and in my opinion, we have an upper hand when it comes to education that involves them. These technologies have helped us, as a generation, grow and learn, but most importantly become a generation filled with new minds, new educational abilities, and new outlooks on how to incorporate technologies into the classroom. 

That being said, there are very specific technologies that I rely on. The three that are most important to me are my Smartphone, social networking sites (namely Twitter and Tumblr), and email. If not for these three technologies, I fead that I’d have no connections to the outside world. 

I recently came into owning an iPhone, and it’s the best thing that I’ve ever owned. Prior to this, I had a cellphone and an iPod, but now the two are combined into one portable device. There’s a kind of power that comes with owning a Smartphone due to literally everything being at your fingertips at virtually anytime. Because it has text messaging, emailing, my music, the internet, social networking sites, and so much more, I don’t ever miss a beat. 

As far as social networking sites are concerned, I think that they are wonderful to have when used in the right context. They can definitely go both ways for me; they can be used for good, such as staying up to date with goings-on with people that you care about as well as other people, or they can be used for evil because people are relentless and use these sites for their own malicious purposes. My two favorite sites are Twitter and Tumblr, though I do have a Facebook. The reason that I have taken a special liking to the first two is because they’re good for networking in a simple sense: Twitter only allows you to write 140 characters a post, while Tumblr is more personal and sentimental blogging site. Also, with Tumblr and Twitter, you can “follow” people that are influential. For instance, on Tumblr I follow a blog “The Daily What” which blogs about the happenings around the world. On Twitter, I follow the New York Times, which tweets about anything that is newsworthy. So, not only do these sites keep me updated on people in my own life, but they also keep me updated on what’s happening around me.

This brings in email. My email is one of my main lifelines. I use it to not only stay in contact with people, but it keeps me updated, as well, with goings-on around me. I get the New York Times headlines emailed to me, I get emails from the WWF and change.org, and obviously, most importantly, I get emails about the happenings at school when I don’t really have any other way to be in the know. If not for emails, then my connections to the outside world would be seriously hindered.

As a future teacher, it’s good to know the technological resources that your students have so you know what kind of work to give them and what you can expect from them technologically. Olivia, though she doesn’t have immediate access to computers, cellphones, and other technologies, she does have some access to them which gives her the upper hand over some of her classmates. However, though she doesn’t always have the access to computers and the like, she is extremely technology-savvy, and that helps her. But, not everyone that doesn’t have constant access to technology are as savvy as she is which would have to be taken into consideration as a teacher.

The relationship that I have with technology is very similar to the students in the videos; there are some differences, but we share most of the same thoughts and reasonings for why we use and how we use technology. Technology has helped shape our lives as not only learners and educators, but as human beings. We have a bright future as learners and educators with the advances in technology that are constantly being developed. In the second video, one of the students said this and I believe that is 100% true to our use of technologies: “It’s paving the way for us to move forward as a species and a civilization.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.