Parker, J. K. (2011). Understanding
youth and digital media. In Schrum, L. (Ed.), The best of Corwin:
Educational technology for school leaders (79-91). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Summary
Current definitions of literacy and
knowledge do not necessarily apply considering new media and digital
technologies. Likewise, the conception
that technology is making students less intelligent is false. Student use of technology is complex and
interwoven into their learning and socializing in addition to their play. Teachers should consider collaborative,
creative, peer-driven learning to create new media classrooms. These attitudes and practices are central to
integrating technology for effective learning as technologies alone will not
suffice.
Reflection
Integrating new technology into my
classroom is a challenge. I am divided
between wanting to maintain the undivided, rapt attention of my students and
wanting to connect to their world, engaging their thinking through technologies
central to their lives. As a writing
consultant and science communicator, I often bridge a gap between traditional
forms of communication and the new, 140-character, speed of light transactions
of knowledge and experience. Science
needs an image update; a goal shared by the National Science Foundation and
Alan Alda’s Center for Communicating Science.
While working with a group teachers,
I pleaded with them to stop making their students write lab reports in passive
voice. “No!” one of my teachers gasped,
“That’s what I fight with them about.”
This is not uncommon; we are trapped by the forms and formats of an
earlier age, when journal articles themselves were a new technology. The struggle now is not to perpetuate
minutia, but to focus on the higher-order concerns. For my teachers, the thing to fight for is
that students make a clear claim, supported with evidence and reasoning. Our goal is student learning, the
understanding of concepts rather than the mechanics of assignments.
I agree with you that there is always a sense of being trapped into the old ways of doing things. That is actually a big pet peeve of mine--I see people that take Power Points and pass them along and never fix or change them. They also are limited in what new they might try or use. Someone actually admitted to me the other day that some of the content that had been passed on to me was over 10 years old! I don't like doing things a certain way because that is the way it has always been done. So now I am struggling to balance between trying new things and not completely "reinventing the wheel" and wearing myself out.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you brought up the other end of the spectrum. We can certainly go overboard and end up wasting precious time doing things that have already been done.
DeleteThat said, we have an ever-increasing body of knowledge. I think this is more evidence that we should start trusting students to use technology in the classroom to stay up-to-date. It is another reason why scientists need to learn how to better communicate with the public to help keep them up-to-date.
I would agree with your view on updating the focus and push the content more than the mechanics. However, we should be careful to not lose track of some of the traditions. Certainly passive voice will get little defense from me, however, we should not be afraid to have some (even arbitrary) requirements. This can challenge students to develop communication skills. Even beyond content there will always be a human element to information exchange. I think it helps to have some challenges built in to prepare students for the (sometimes completely) arbitrary criteria others will apply. I agree many approaches today give too much fixation on the minutia especially at the expense of content.
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