Week 3 of EDUG 522: Curriculum Integration of Educational Technology presents the importance of incorporating technology into our classrooms. I will be one of the first people to admit that I often find myself difficult finding ways to bring more technology activities into lessons since I moved from teaching junior high students to currently teaching third grade. I am very thankful for taking courses like this and some similar ones because they truly motivate me to find time to locate activities and incorporate as part of some of my classroom's learning unit.
I found the videos on http://www.edutopia.org/ that were part of this weeks assignment a true testiment to how many children learn effectively.
The first video, “Digital Youth Portrait: Sam”, to truly relate to many kids today. To be honest when the video first started off and went into how many hours in a day that she spent on video games such as World of Warcraft, I was so surprised that her teachers and parents continued to go onto give such wonderful examples about what a great academic student she was in class. I also found it interesting that someone that spends that amount of time consumed in technology to have so many other interests, such as her love for music and playing the instrument at school. The fact that she went in and helped students at a university was another truly amazing quality. This video is a good example of how students often learn from each other just as well as an instructor. It is also a good model to show that today's students are eager and wanting technology incorporated into their day. The downside that I see to this is when she talked about not reading books because of being bored and at the sametime some of the basics we all rely on need to continue in the curriculum as well.
The second video, “Schools Use of Games for Learning and Assessment”, was great because it relates to the fact that many children learn from hands on experiences just as well as adults. When they turned to the instructor/teacher writing on the board you seen how many students had lost focus. Some are able to put a picture in their head as being told but many things can't be taught without being hands-on. The visuals that were shown as examples in this video were a perfect example of some learning experiences are best taught by seeing and doing compared to direct instruction.
As for this weeks reading from the text, I agree that we need to engage and motivate our students during instruction. My own students work so well and are so excited and motivated to learn when they know we are able to use the room with the SmartBoard or work on a webquest. I find many students with attention issues respond very well to activities that incorporate activity.
I enjoyed this week's video and reading and find them to show a true relation of how important it is to incorporate technology not just as an extra but part of when units are being taught.
Resources
http://www.edutopia.org/computer-simulations-games-virtual-learning-video
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-sam-video
Roblyer, M.D. and Doering, A.H. (2010). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. 5th Edition. Allen and Bacon, Boston: Pearson Education.
Great post! I'm curious... how has the transition from junior high to 3rd grade been? Granted, at times you could probably compare the behavior and maturity of the two :)
ReplyDeleteI too was concerned to learn that the young student in the 1st video, Sam, found little interest in reading. Perhaps computer oriented reading programs geared toward the more 'advanced', computer savy student could be further explored as a means of integrating reading within the entertainment relm of technology?