Generation X, Millennium, and the Edge are going to though a generation conflict when it comes to education. What I mean is we as educators where taught to teach the old factory assembly-line way and for the most part that is how we teach. The problem is that is not how our students learn, they learn by using digital tools and in short lectures. So how are we going to reach our students? It is going to be though teaching ourselves new ways to educate our students. We need to learn first how to use these new tools before we can teach our students, not new ways to learn, but our curriculum. We are reinventing the wheel when it comes to our area of study, being the four core areas or the electives, we need to teach students how they learn and not how we where taught. We are the Digital Immigrants not our students.
The problem that I see is that of time management and finding time to learn how to teach a different way, or but yet deliver our curriculum in a new way. Then we need to find the time to convert our curriculum to the new formats and lastly make sure we have the skills to be effective in teaching in this new educational delivery format. We are all educators and we need to make sure we keep learning new things and new ways to teach to better server our students.
At this point, in time, the K-12 systems is changing over from the millennium generation to the edge generation. In anyone class there are going to be students that not wired into technology with nothing more then a flip phone to the others that have more technology on their person then we have in our classroom. So how do we teach using technology when we have these two generations mixing together? We start now to teach ourselves new ways to teach, but still use the old techniques. We start by introducing new technology delivery systems to deliver our curriculum. Then we start by switching over our curriculum to the new delivery methods. It is not going to happen over night, nor should it, we need to start with small changes to learn and teach both ourselves and our students. Then build on those skills no differently then we teach any lesson in our curriculum now, we start out with the basic theory and move up to the mastery level.
These are my thoughts, what our yours?
Time management is a huge issue! Anytime you try something new with students there are bound to be hiccups. This can be very frustrating from a lesson planning standpoint. You also don't want to "reinvent the wheel." Finding a balance can be a challenge. I've found some success by making simple changes with the mediums that we use for the lesson. For example, instead of using little chalk or dry erase board, I've had students use iPads. This was a simple change, but it had a great impact. There was a lot of engagement and the students were pumped. Luckily, because the students are now digital natives, instructing students on how to use the app wasn't too time consuming. Today's educators will eventually adapt to using this ever changing technology.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that educators will need to be instructed on how to integrate technology effectively into their curriculum. These changes will not overnight. I am hopeful that we are taking steps in the right direction by taking this class, but I can safely assume that their are not many teachers in my district taking graduate level classes on instructional technology. I believe that classes like these are almost a necessity anymore for teachers.
ReplyDeleteSo, my question for you and your group to ponder (if ideas run thin) is about your statement about how students learn by short lectures and digital tools. Was this the best way all along (put differently, we taught a certain way, incorrectly, but did nothing to explore and change it)? Does the digital aspect matter or is it simply a matter of time on task?
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon. I enjoyed reading your take on the various articles and publications we had this week. I was particularly struck by your comment on how some students have a flip phone while other students had more technology on them then we had in our entire classroom. This got me to thinking: What do we do when there is such a variance in one classroom. My idea is to have students begin to collaborate their ideas on this topic. Perhaps give the class a lesson that will be comming up later in the year. Then, create groups. Have each group pretend they had one piece of technology and have them brainstorm how best to use that one piece of technology to enhance the future lesson. Perhaps one groups tech tool would be a flip phone. Another groups tech tool would be a PS3 while another could be a smart phone. My point is this divide is not just affecting us as educators but it is affecting them as students so why not begin to teach them how to overcome and use whatever they have available?
ReplyDeleteYou kind of hit the nail on the nose with the question of how will we adjust our teaching from how we were taught in school, the old assembly line, to the way students learn and want to be taught now. The challenge is definitely quickly retraining ourselves from the old way of doing things. But, just as important was your point of the whole transition of how we design curriculum to work with how students now learn. Needless to say, time is always a factor with teaching, and being able to bring forth good flexible lessons that all students benefit from will probably continue to be a challenge as we grow as technology literate educators.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the responsibility on how teaching and learning should change is up to the teachers. We have to adjust to the new way of learning, through technology, or we will loose our students. This issue is so huge, mainly because as teachers we don't only affect how students learn and what they learn but we affect how they will run the world. I agree with you that the main reason that we have not adjusted is because some of us do not know how to use the current technology, we cannot teach what we do not know. But that is not an excuse that just means that we have to make the effort to learn these ways. And yes I know that time is a big issue, how can teachers teach all day and then come home and prepare for the next day and grade papers and so on... and somewhere in the midst of this learn about technology, Perhaps it is more of the school's or head's of education to provide professional training workshops to teachers during school hours. Or perhaps we can find a way to learn as our student's learn and do this during our classroom. However means we decide to do it, it must be done, we have to get on board with this new technology and teach our students by relating to them.
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