It is a question I think about when I am about to introduce a new technology to my students. I think to myself:
Have this used this technology before?
Will then find it engaging and interactive?
How long will this technology be useful to them?
Will they really use this or am I just showing them something else to forget?
Shouldn't they be teaching me about some pieces of technology?
While I can't answer most of these questions - I often times just take the plunge anyways and introduce the new tech. with some excitement and some confusion. I realize that my students are not as tech. savvy as the media might portray them. They need guidance through these new technologies just like everyone else, in fact sometimes even more so. The tech (and internet sites, which I am interchanging with technology) that I am showing the students is new to the kids (at least for educational purposes).
Though many have seen a blog, not many had actually known how to make one, how to respond to one, and what the real purpose of one was. When I showed my students how to use it and how we were going to use it in our class, I got a mixed bad of responses. Some immediately gravitated towards using is but others saw no use to it. Still others thought it was just another way to do work but the work was still there (clearly, motivation needs to be instilled in this group!).
It has been four years since I have introduced blogging to my students and every year I need to re-introduce why its important to a new crop of students. As an educator, we must be sincere with our technology and our students. It's one thing to use technology in the classroom authentically and its another just to use it. By guiding and using technology with our students, we can do the first one much more easily.
2 comments:
I enjoyed your post and agree that we believe students are quite adept with technology when, in fact, they are often not using it correctly or to its full capactity. I think some teachers are easily intimidated by the thought that our students can use technology better than they can and as a result shy away from its use in the classroom. The problem is that we need to view ourselves as experts in the field and use those skills to come up with ways to integrate websites, programs, tech equipment, etc. Not an easy task, yet one that can be accomplished with collaboration between colleagues...again not easy, but what in education is a breeze anyway?
Good post! To be honest, I did not fully understand blogging until recently even though I have dabbled with them for almost 10 years. it is completely true that we tend to believe that students are far more tech savvy than. In reality it is more like they can more easily pick up the technology once understanding it. So we come to the dilemma that we understand the use of these technologies faster but we have to be very intentional to learn how to use it when our student will learn how to use it before fully understanding it. How can we better bridge the gap between understanding and learning with ourselves and our students?
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