Quote:
“Sonia Livingstone notes that in the digital age literacy should provide
students with “the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create messages
across a variety of contexts” (Livingstone, 2004, p. 3).”
Response:
Exposing
students to technology without teaching them to use technology is like handing
a child a pencil and not showing them how to sharpen it. Some will get it and most will not. Students, of all ages, have a variety of
learning styles, and this is evident in technology as well as traditional
learning. Without providing critical instruction
in the use of media, some students will not benefit from the media. Various types of instruction is needed for
different learning styles. So too is it
true when looking the technology to instruct in, the media that is successful used
by a person will be directly influenced by their learning style. For instance, if an auditory learning is
trained on blogging software by reading instructions they will not do as well
as they would if there was a video providing instruction. As an educator, one must be aware that as in
traditional education venues not all students are created equal and not all
technology is created the same.
Resource:
I
found several sites and resources of interesting, including an IPad Media
Camp. http://www.ipadmediacamp.com/ and while I liked the concept I felt that the concept
of the camp was poorly represented in the promotional trailer. I would think that if one was promoting a
venue that is teaching media skills then the promotional pieces should be
inspirational and reflective of the skills to be learned.
I
did find a lesson plan http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/students-creators-exploring-multimedia-1088.html?tab=1#tabs that not only teaches literacy
skills, but also how to create media.
The lesson plan is geared towards 6-8th grade for 10 50
minute sessions.
In
my non-educator brain I question the amount of work to be completed in 10, 50
minute sessions. While I believe it is
possible to accomplish the objectives in that time, I wonder if a standard size
classroom keeps this a realistic goal. I
realize that is not the point of this assignment, but in some ways it relates
to my comments, do we expect too much?
Or do we need to set our goals high to accomplish the minimum standards that
students need.
I
have long believed that in education we teach students to ride a bicycle before
they have mastered walking and in doing so we create complications in the
education system. For example, providing
laptops to students in the 3rd grade, who not yet mastered writing
let alone keyboarding skills will have a negative impact upon the learning
curve for most students at a later date.
This
resource directly supports the reading by providing critical media literacy and
media use skills at an appropriate age.
However, it is students of this age that will struggle with basic
computer skills because they did not spend enough time learning the basics of
technology or they learned the basics before they were ready.
Citation:
Love, C. (2008, 03). Students as creators:
Exploring multimedia. Retrieved from
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/students-creators-exploring-multimedia-1088.html?tab=1
Fryer, W. (n.d.). Ipad media camp. Retrieved
from http://www.ipadmediacamp.com/
Raimist, R., Doerr-Stevens, C., & Jacobs, W.
(2010). The pedagogy of digital storytelling in the college classroom. Seminar.net
international journal of media, technology, and lifelong learning, 6(2),
Retrieved from
http://www.seminar.net/index.php/home/75-current-issue/145-the-pedagogy-ofdigital-storytelling-in-the-college-classroom
Jane,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the links. They were informative and thought provoking. I really enjoyed your analogy of teaching students more difficult skills when they haven't even mastered the basics. It's terrible that this this goes on everyday in many of today's classrooms.
I agree and like your analogy. I also enjoyed the links you found especially the ipad media camp. I think that with everything you must build on a good foundation or the attempt will crumble. Sometimes technology is introduced without that good foundation due to lack or both time and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jane has raised some interesting points about mastery of skills and building a foundation of knowledge before engaging in complicated tasks. This is certainly true in the case of learning mathematics.
ReplyDeleteHowever research indicates this NOT true in case of learning to write with computers.
Good writing does not seem to correlate with strong keyboarding skills. Kids only need to be able to type about 8-10 words a minute (about the same as they can write with a pencil).
Third graders learn to keyboard this fast just by spending time using a keyboard. No intensive keyboarding instruction is necessary.
Good writing stems from good thinking, feeling like you have something important to say, and feeling like someone cares about what you have to say. The hard part is helping students get ideas on paper, the easy part is teaching spelling and punctuation as student edit their work to produce a polished copy that will be read by someone other than the teacher.
Perhaps "typing" vs "keyboarding" is like apples vs. oranges. Typing in my day was the physical skills but also correct formatting, letter writing, salutations, etc. etc. etc. We learned so much more than how to correctly press the buttons on the manual typewriter. In the early years my children were required to spend 30 minutes a day with Mavis Beacon to learn keyboarding skills. As a result in 6th grade my children were proficient typists.
DeleteMy children and stepchildren were involved in a pilot program of multi-level classrooms. The emphasis was on writing and working together. Students work was not graded for grammar or spelling. To this day, my step-daughter cannot spell. There are others that came from that program that continue to struggle with basic grammar and spelling. My daughter is still working to overcome a relaxed writing environment. My step-daughter will never overcome her issues, and I can say that with certainty, but I would also venture that there are other factors at play with her.
Having learned more about learning styles I feel confident in saying that it is blanket statements like all kids can or all kids can't is dangerous. There is no one learning style that encompasses "ALL" kids.
Don't get me wrong, I love technology and I believe it is very important, but I also believe in teaching to the child not to the test. It is difficult to meet the needs of each and every child, but as educators shouldn't that be our goal?