Sunday, June 26, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds
Blog topic #3
It makes sense that use of technology would go up with increased access and availability. I was shocked that heavy youth users are "plugged in" around 10 hours a day, the same amount many adults work every day... only, as the Kaiser report points out, kids spend 7 days a week with this schedule, not just 5.The correlation between amount of time and decreased personal satisfaction and grades is very interesting. I question the inclusion of music as one of the media measured with the other forms. I know that I frequently work better when I can control what I am hearing instead of other's voices or the constant drone of TVs left on in communal areas.
One of the most important findings is that we parents can monitor and control the amount of media our children consume if we choose. Having grown up myself with limits on TV and computer, I approached my parenthood with the same idea. When we got our third TV in our home, somehow we had to add satellite for more options. With each additional computer, I wondered about the amount of time our children spent on them. It was easier at first to set limits, like putting the computers in an open spot of high traffic. I limited how much and which hours the kids could go on line. I was resistant to getting an xbox too.
I feel that for the most part I did a fair job. As parents will tell you, it helps if both of them are on the same page. I couldn't get my husband to participate in TV turn off days. When I suggested that we unplug or monitor TV use, it was only done when I was home. If I had to work or go to a meeting, I would come home to my youngest watching TV. She became increasingly hard to regulate, since I couldn't be there all the time to do it.
How do I think the findings will affect my teaching? I'm not really sure. Teachers can model moderate use of technology, they can instruct children about it... but at the end of the school day, children go home.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
What is optimal use of technology in education?
Blog topic #2
Children come wired to learn based on their environment.In Oppenheimer's 1st Chapter of The Flickering Mind, he discusses what he call the history of technotopia in education. With every new wave of technology and promises made to improve education, technology hucksters hype the utopia of what they can do for our children. Oppenheimer references one Orwellian disaster after another where each new wave fails to address literacy and improving education, with remnants of obsolescence lurking where an increasing percentage of our education expenditures have gone.
In the International Society for Technology in Education (NETS-S and Tech Tonic), the overarching caution is that something is amplified and something else is amputated.
I agree that we can easily be tempted by the ease of using technology in our own learning and in that of our students. However, with the invention of the digital clock, students don't learn analog time telling and important math skills. With a calculator, we don't have to do the work of computation. With google translate, why should I bother learning another language?
I think the best computer we have is our brain. If we except that synapses need to fire and neural connections need to be made, I think we can accept that technology is a tool. We can use it for our betterment, or as the lazy way to get out of work. And the brain benefits or atrophies.
With the invention of the television and the evolution of both parents working, children frequently succumb to the endless brain numbing programming. How many hours of tv do children watch? How many commercials, violence, and other things we don't want our children emulating? How will they learn if we don't teach them?
Weizenheimer, an MIT Computer Technology whiz some decades ago predicted the best use of technology would be for teachers' management of information.
The computer is not the teacher. And, as one of our classmates stated, students prefer a teacher over distance learning. The interaction itself is part of a meaningful education.
I think technology helps with administration, but it does have educational applications. Students are motivated by the use of technology, and And, like it or not, it is here to stay. If we can approach technology with a perspective of critical thinking and model that for our children, we are more likely to have a well balanced, educated next generation that will thrive in a compassionate 21st century.
More information to think about on this topic is in the following New York Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/opinion/29franzen.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=OP-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-TPA-052911-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)