Sunday, January 24, 2010
Kaiser Foundation Media Report
The recent Kaiser Foundation report on Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds has got me thinking about the appropriate use of IPods, cellphones, PSPs and other entertainment devices in the classroom. To be honest I was about to jump on the bandwagon of why we should be using these devices for educational purposes in the classroom, and then I came to my senses. Students do not see these devices as educational devices. They are purely meant to be devices for entertainment and socializing. We never tried to incorporate the ATARI into our classrooms in the 80s so why are we going down this road? Nor did teachers of the 50's and 60's put on an Elvis jump suit hoping to lure the attention of their students by singing the lesson of the day. The big challenge is that entertainment is so portable and convenient that it interferes with everyday learning. We are educators, and we are the experts in our subject areas. Do not replace yourself with a cell phone that can browse the internet, play music, take pictures, and play movies. Students are already spending 11 hours a day being entertained with technology, so lets spend six hours of their day helping them learn. A good hands on exploratory lab, or a trip to a museum is a more authentic learning experience than trying monitor "the appropriate use of technology" in your classroom. If John Grieson were alive today he would tell our students to put your cell phones away, and go out and experience life.
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I certainly can't argue with the get out & experience life part of your argument, Paul. I agree completely, we need authentic learning, good labs or inquiry actiites, discussions, field trips are great. Yet, in many classrooms students sit in uncomfortable chairs and get the experience from worksheets, answering questions from out of date textbooks, listening to lectures about stuff that they do not see as connected to reality.... this is not experiencing life anymore than using an iPod or game system is - maybe less so? If the technology can help connect to the real world, engage them, enhance the learning, then why not? You are right, many kids do not view the devices as educational ones, maybe it is good that we show them this side. Maybe they will use it for educational purposes outside of school as well. If the technology does not enhance the learning, don't use it, if it does, I think even Griereson would use it. Another thing you say that is true, don't replace yourself with technology - but if a teacher can be replaced by a cell phone, then maybe they should be.
ReplyDeleteHey Paul,
ReplyDeleteGood food for thought here; thanks. I am on board with Mike with regard to trying to show kids how to use media to learn because maybe the learned skills will spill over into their personal lives, which would suggest we have done our job. This is connected to the authentic learning of the day. What is authentic learning? Is it removing the technical elements of society and going out to commune with nature? Or, is it working within the reality of the culture, the social milieu, which in our case includes electric media? In today’s classroom, the authentic learning is learning connected to those realities found in the students’ personal lives: the iPod, cell phone and internet. Like John Dewey once wrote, the educational environment needs to be an extension of the environment from which our students come (see Dewey, Experience & Education). This is not to say that authentic learning doesn’t occur in environments where the toys don’t exist. Let me here share a story. Last year, I was at a sustainable development education workshop sponsored by the Prairie Spirit School Division (the one the employs me). There I met Rick Wishart, national director of education for Ducks Unlimited. We spoke for a few minutes and I trumpeted some tech related ideas to him. His response was, “but we want to get kids outside.” No better place to study wetlands and their conservation than outside (I guess... I’m not a biologist or zoologist). So, authenticity, like so many other things, is relative. The idea of unplugging once in a while is good... temperance is a cardinal virtue.
A lot of valid points, Paul. I am of the opinion that the best and most appropriate way of using technologies in a classroom is for knowledge creation. When children are requested to create a piece of work that is original and personal, they are challenged to use the technologies more effectively. Too often, our students are asked to use computers and other technologies in what would be considered more traditional modalities. That is, use a word processor to write an essay. Instead, if a child is challenged to write a digital essay using every feature of a word processor including sound, animation, text, hyper-linking and art, they see the essay as more than just a collection of thoughts and text – they see it as coming to life. The essay writing experience is not necessarily compromised as many of the skills of writing an essay can still be incorporated into a digital essay. I concur that digital technologies can be a distraction and are used primarily for socializing and entertainment. However, imagination and creativity can also be powerful motivators when applied to the appropriate technologies.
ReplyDeleteHey Paul, this is exciting. Nothing replaces the 100% experience one gets from a trip to the museum or a walk in the park in spring, or that roller coaster ride (to teach velocity, gravity and other laws of physics), etc.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering though, what if we can change the use of IPods, cellphones, PSPs and other entertainment devices to accommodate learning or rather, for learning to accommodate them? What if schools, governments task game makers to create games for learning rather than just entertainment?
I am not sure at what time personal computers became useful for learning. But I recall vividly that they were word processors and tools for computation (and not education??) for a long time before they found their ways into educational usefulness.
One example, I recall, playing "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" on my school's computer lab. Games were banned, but playing we did. I learned aspects of geography, logical thinking, etc better than I could have in class. Today, computers are used, but it was no easy road to making it into the classroom.
So, my wandering thoughts lead me just to..."what if we adapt these tools for educational purposes?" Just thinking.
Excellent post!
Well said Paul!!! Could not have done better myself. The key word being `authentic` learning experiences. Kids need this, they need to see the real thing, experience the real thing. Not the VIRTUAL experience.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right, we did not bring Atari (lol) into the classroom in the 80`s but I am sure today that some are bringing the Xbox and other gaming apparatus into the classroom. Question here is are they providing this solely for entertainment, or quality learning experiences.
My main point is too much stimulation is needed it seems for kids to be satisfied. Maybe this why we appear to be experiencing more behavior issues in schools today. Justa thought.
Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Wow, that takes me back. I also remember a game where you were a trucker and had to plan routes, gas, money, budget, etc.
ReplyDeleteTrue, there was little educational value in Pong and Pac Man, so early entertainment technology would have been a stretch for educational purposes. But I think that we can all agree that technology has changed. While the focus is often on entertainment, and that certainly seems to be where our students minds go first with all of these devices, there are many great ways that these things can be used. I agree with Paul that we should not be looking to replace ourselves with a gadget, that is really bad teaching practice (and a bad career move as well!), but I don't believe that is the goal for most of us. Balance seems to be the route most are looking for.
I also agree that the authentic experience is ideal, and there is a need to unplug. But we can not go outside, to the museum, or a lab every single day. And even if we did, they would become normalized to it and pull out the phones again. And since technology permeates their lives so much, isn't technology use of some kind also an authentic experience for them on some level?