To read the article, click here: Innovation Through Technology
It is not
surprising to read, “96 percent of nine- to seventeen-year-olds embrace the Web 2.0 culture of social networking, blogging,
twitter- ing, GPS mapping, or interactive
gaming at some level” (National School Board Association, 2007) and “according
to the National School Board Association (2007), they typically spend about
nine hours per week outside of school using social
networking and ten hours watching television.” It is therefore the task of
schools to embrace this “techy” culture and use it to its advantage. Students
will be more engaged if we, allow them to live and learn in their world, at
school. The article also explained
that according to administrators who
responded to the CoSN survey, the top three reasons for using Web 2.0 in school
are to (1) keep students interested and engaged in school, (2) meet the needs
of different kinds of learners, and (3) develop the
critical-thinking skills of students.
It is therefore inevitable to embrace the innovations of visualization,
democratization of knowledge and participatory cultures of learning. There is
no valid reason for schools to live in the past if the future of education will
rely heavily on Web 2.0. If we
examine closely, we will come to realize that our students’ use of the Web
usually is for the purpose of expressing themselves and sharing their stories
to their circle of friends. They create profile pages and upload photos and
videos. They react with each other and actively make comments on each other’s
pages. If students are equipped with the ability to make critical judgments of
what they post online then we as educators can use this skill to our advantage
by looking at the Web as an exceptional learning environment. We could turn
creation of profile as personal expression, uploading of photos and videos as a
way to express creativity and interest, commenting as thoughtful discussion and
critical thinking. The use of the Web also subjects our students to exposure to
a massive amount of visual input. They need a lot of guidance to be able to
turn these images to ideas and share them with others.
All three
innovations are very important but I believe I should address visualization
considering that 4th graders are on the verge of becoming constant consumers
of information. According to the article, it is important to acknowledge that
people learn better combining visuals with text and sound than through using
either process alone which is highly helpful to language learners.
Visualization promotes critical and creative thinking if directed effectively, resulting
to interesting discussions in the classroom and build vocabulary. As I have
mentioned earlier, our students are already exposed to it, all we need to do is
to bank on it and make the experience more worthwhile for them. Although, our
division tries its best to promote the use of technology by providing students and teachers equipments and the library with the necessary resources,
it is still necessary to take the time to build their critical thinking skills.
We try our best as educators to teach them to be their own critiques, to expose
themselves to useful information and visuals. But despite all these provisions,
students come home and are left to use the Web without any guidance. They are
then free to expose themselves to all forms of images that may not be helpful
to enhance the skill learned in school.
I agree and liked your post. I enjoyed reading that: "There is no valid reason for schools to live in the past if the future of education will rely heavily on Web 2.0." I believe however, that this is not the future, but a fact already. The challenge for education is to move to the pace of technology. Therefore, as educators, it is our responsibility to try to catch-up. The sooner, the better, like you mentioned, to keep students engaged and therefore learning from school and by themselves. That way we will be promoting that students acquire the necessary skills to be successful in a very complex and difficult to predict future.
ReplyDeleteAfter moving abroad, I have found myself spending much more time than usual maintaining an online presence through blogging and facebook. I update these profiles with photos, captions, reflections, and sometimes links to other resources that provide background information about what I'm talking about. In all of this, I hav to be purposeful with what I share because some of it is for my family, some is for co-workers, and some is for my friends. I want to share certain parts of my personal and professional life with these different groups of people, and when posting, I have to carefully consider my audience and the intended impact of my content. I hadn't previously considered all of this from a skills perspective, but in reading you post and your great suggestion to incorporate the creation of profiles, including the "uploading of photos and videos as a way to express creativity and interest" and "commenting as thoughtful discussion and critical thinking" into the classroom, I am recognizing two things. One, creating profiles as part of a class project leaves the door open for students to enjoy working on something personal that builds, critical thinking, writing, visual literacy, and perspective-taking skills. Great! Two, as you said, students need guidance in learning how to share information and design their profiles intentionally so that they have the correct impact on appropriate audiences. You are right that our 4th grade age group is on the verge of becoming grand consumers of information, and I am excited to see how we might be able to incorporate the idea of personal profiles into our curriculum! Thanks for posting.
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