In our first class meeting, we ended the night with a question, which we began to answer:
Should we continue to treat traditional methods of student interaction with information (such as learning to read the index section of books) as having equal value as being able to properly search and vet information in hyper-linked format (such as in learning apps or on Wikipedia)? Why or why not?
Please continue that discussion here, specifically reflecting on the needs of your own students. Remember to reply to this main question, as well as to the response of at least one other person!
Should we continue to treat traditional methods of student interaction with information (such as learning to read the index section of books) as having equal value as being able to properly search and vet information in hyper-linked format (such as in learning apps or on Wikipedia)? Why or why not?
Please continue that discussion here, specifically reflecting on the needs of your own students. Remember to reply to this main question, as well as to the response of at least one other person!
I guess I will be the first to respond to the question above. The world has changed so much in the past decade. Society is shifting towards a digital world and there is no stopping it. On page 10 of Digital Citizenship in Schools, the author states that “there is no way to predict the future”. I agree, however we can clearly view the trend and make an educated prediction as to what the world will be like when our students enter the work force. Therefore, I do not think that a skill such as reading the index section of a book should be weighted as highly as properly using a data base to research a topic. For example, in my own classroom, I haven’t had a dictionary on the book shelf for the past 4 years. If the students need to look up a definition they simply do it online. In fact, their first inclination is to look it up online, they don’t even think of using a dictionary anymore. Traditional skills using text are valuable, but they are becoming less critical to students and their value will only decrease as we become more engrossed in the digital age.
ReplyDeleteDavid Gionfriddo
I agree with David that society is shifting towards a digital world, and at an alarming rate. According to Ray Kurzwiel (http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweil-bio), "We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate)." And this was an idea he expressed in 2001! How is an educator, as David and the text state, going to predict what future to prepare our students for? I'm not sure we can. I am sure, however, that teaching the 21st century skills; collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication, and making sure that our students become fluent in these skills, will prepare them for any future. How we do that needs to be evaluated based on the the standards, and students, that we are mentoring. I think that the traditional methods are always a wonderful springboard to the 21st century skills our students need to be immersed in. Traditional methods are also part of our history, and history is the story of our world. Neither is more important than the other. They compliment each other.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
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DeleteCarolyn, I agree that certain traditional methods of finding information should be kept alive--but not for the reason that they're part of our history. I think it should be only for as long as they're useful.
DeleteFor example, we don't live in a world, yet, where every single cash register is counting the correct change for all of the cashiers of the world, so it's too soon to throw away math skills. We don't live in a world, yet, where there’s no reason ever to organize our thoughts into complete sentences, so it's too soon to throw away English skills.
For me, these are the reasons why we can't let go of those "past" skills, yet. Will we ever be at that point? I don't know. It's hard to imagine a world in which we would NEVER need these basic skills. But while I'm also nostalgic for "do-it-yourself thinking", I'm OK with letting obsolete skills go...so long as they really are obsolete.
I think that we need to shift our main focus of student interaction with information from the traditional methods to a digital based focus.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “Is Google making us stupid” Nicholas Carr states, “due to the brain's malleable nature, technology has changed the way today's students read, perceive, and process information.” The student populations that I work with are digital natives. They struggle with traditional classrooms. They hate to use textbooks. By gearing teaching towards technology, the students will be more confortable and create an atmosphere in which we can potentially increase student interest, motivation, and their success.
Hi Jackie---I agree! Whenever I bring out presentations in my music classes that involve YouTube or my iPad, my students instantly become more alert! I honestly believe that the technology my kids use in their every day life is a huge motivator in the classroom! And on a personal front, because my own children are very "tech savvy," they feel comfortable using their technology at school and for research projects at home.
DeleteSee you Tuesday! :)
I am truly torn by this question. Because I teach multiple levels of students, I see both the harms and benefits that can come from abandoning traditional methods.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, with my special education students who have a tough time with tasks, such as looking up an index, it is extremely rewarding to watch them use an iPad to find that same information without any frustration. They are better able to keep up with the mainstream students and they do not feel as though they are falling behind.
However, with my regular education students, I have seen just the opposite. Over the past few years, I have seen a drastic increase in their "neediness". While they are proficient with technology, they are so used to having things at their fingertips that they are easily frustrated with tasks that take more time and patience. They want everything to be a click away and so when they cannot find the answer to a problem immediately, they often times give up or ask me for help without, in a sense, "struggling" a bit to solve the problem themselves. For example, while it is nice to simply highlight a word on a Kindle to see its definition, doing so eliminates spelling skills. Students don't learn how to spell the word they're looking up because the technology does so for them. As an English teacher, this has become an increasing issue in my classroom.
While I understand that traditional methods are a way of the past, I believe that it is important that we find a new way to help students to become young people who also know how to look for answers themselves if one doesn't immediately present itself. For instance, the Common Core asks that students, "Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or area, which highlights the need for technology to be used in our classrooms. (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.4) However it also asks that students, "Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events," (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.1), which asks for some critical thinking skills that cannot be found at the touch of a button. I fear that if we create a student who always has accessibility to quick answers, then he/she will have a more difficult time being patient to take the time and analyze or create a connection. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I see a lack of creativity in problem solving skills in my more recent students. -Laura
You make a good point. We all learn in different ways. Accessing information using different mediums may give students insight on how to organize their ideas and thoughts and also may teach them to persevere and use different strategies when problem solving and learning. This makes me think of my daughter. She went to school for 3-d animation. The programs she works with are amazing. She is using cutting edge technology in a medium that did not exist several years ago. But she has skills and habits that she formed long ago that give her the ability to do what she is doing now. She loved to draw and would spend hours drawing. She learned to create art using pencil, paint, and many other mediums. Later on she used computer tablets and programs to create. I believe the experience that she had creating in many different ways gave her the ability to better use the technology that she uses today.
DeleteI understand your hesitation to leave traditional learning techniques behind. Upon further reflection I am less sure of my position on this issue. On Friday I tried an experiment with my introduction to foods classes. We are starting the year off with a unit on safety and sanitation. I gave the students a list of vocabulary terms related to the subject. The student’s job was to look up the terms and define the terms. They had a choice, they could look up the highlighted terms in the chapter, they could us the books glossary or they could used their cell phones/ipads to find the answers. It was very interesting. I had some students choose each method. The pattern that I saw was that students that choose to following along with the chapter looking for the highlighted term finished before the other two groups of students. The students that used the glossary and those that used technology finished a about the same time. However the students that used the technology had some terms defined in a different manner that not as closely related to safety and sanitation. The flip side to this is that I had 100% of the students complete the assignment. I feel that in this case using the textbook was more efficient. But I also feel that I had some students complete the assignment using technology that would not have done the assignment at all if they were forced to use the textbook.
Deletejackie
I agree that technology sometimes hinders students. Having taught for 18 years, I have seen a change in kids who now need to be entertained all the time and have shorter attention spans than in the past because of their constant use of technology. They are more needy and less patient as you said. And just as calculators have caused kids to not know their multiplication tables, new writing tools such as auto-correct have affected kids ability to spell. In an article published in Mail Online, Laura Clark writes, “Computer spell checks have created an ‘auto-correct generation’ unable to spell common words such as ‘necessary’ and ‘separate’, a survey has found.” However, being a math teacher, I feel the pros of calculator use, at least at the high school level, certainly outweigh the cons. I use the graphing calculator on a daily basis with my students. It enables students to do more in-depth problem solving without being bogged down by tedious calculations, graphing, and data analysis which used to be done by hand. The same can probably be said about other technologies in other subject areas. And as far as kids needing to be entertained, well, maybe instead of fighting it, teachers should embrace the technology that kids crave. There does need to be a balance though.
DeleteOver the last twelve years of my teaching career, I have witnessed extraordinary technological advances in the classroom. Smart boards, digital grade books, progress and attendance reports have dramatically changed the way teachers and students present and extract information. Students are immersed into a pool of technology. Today’s students are technologically savvy and are able to navigate through the latest technological devices and applications with ease and comfort. These devices are designed to make our lives easier, so it’s hard to advocate for the more traditional method of looking information up in a dictionary or textbook.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dave’s comment that we have shifted to a digital world. Dave, my dictionaries also sit on my classroom shelf and will remain there as a memorial to the soon to be outdated traditional method of obtaining information. In order to teach and prepare this and future generations for the digital world, we have to embrace these technological changes. If not, we are doing a disservice to our students. In an article entitled “Using Technology to Engage Today’s Student,” published in Education Today talks about a disconnect of using technology for educational purpose in the traditional classroom. In this article, a teacher told a student to put his phone away and the student replied, “You see a phone when in reality this is my computer. This is my connection to information.”
So Shane, to answer your question, I do not think there is value in continuing to teach students via more traditional methods. Why have horses pull your carriage when you can have a Chevy V8?
Kevin Pelczar
I believe that we should, at the moment, continue to treat traditional methods of student interaction with information as having equal value as being able to properly search and vet information in hyper-linked format. I have several reasons for feeling this way. First, as a fourth grade teacher, I view the process of reading and acquiring information as a form of thinking. The way we learn to access information, the way we learn how to read, the way we learn to use text, shapes the way we think. The organization of a book and how we access the content from it is not only a skill to attain information, but it a way to train a young mind to organize thoughts and information. Also, we are not certain how we will be accessing information in the future. The only thing we can be sure of is that it will be different than the way we do it today. I think teaching students to access information using printed media as well as in hyperlinked format will help students to be flexible and better meet the changes and challenges that the future will bring. Finally, one of the elements of digital citizenship is digital access. In “Digital Citizenship in Schools”, the author states that “not everyone has access to all the tools to this new digital society”. In the school I teach, over 80 percent of the students receive either free or reduced lunch. Many students do not have access to the Internet at home. Many of these students also do not have access to a variety of books at home. For many students the issue is not only digital access but information access. I feel as long as we have and use books in any form for information, it is important that all students have the tools to use them effectively.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this answer is easy. Of course we need to embrace new technology and move forward with our resources. Why wouldn't we? Do most humans use the abacus for solving math problems? No. Times change. And we need to make sure we keep up.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager, we were not permitted to use calculators in math class. This has changed in recent years--and rightfully so. I'm not saying that we shouldn't learn to use our brains, but when I'm balancing my checkbook, I want to use a device that will accurately help me instead of relying on my brain--which is often not very reliable. I can still do long division with a pencil and paper--I just don't want to...especially when I need to make sure my answer is accurate. Thankfully, I live in a time that I can focus on things that REALLY matter in my life and I can leave the long division to my laptop calculator!!
The purpose of an index, a glossary, a dictionary, etc is to find information. If the same, accurate information is easily accessible online, why shouldn't we teach our children to use these resources. Staying with the "traditional" sense of accessing this information will only prove to our students that we are uncomfortable with something that they have known their entire lives. And, therefore, we are not going to be as effective in the classroom as we could be.
I will admit I have very mixed feelings about the use of technology verses traditional methods. Being a math teacher, I feel textbooks definitely have their place in the math classroom. Then again, how many students actually read a math textbook? Still, they often refer to the problems done out in the chapter and it serves as a good source of problems for homework. I will admit that I love the idea of the reverse classroom model, where students would learn a lesson through Khan Academy the night before class and then we would practice the skills in class instead of them learning the lesson from me and then having them practice the skills at home. I would be somewhat reluctant to try this right now, however, due to lack of technology access, unmotivated students who do not view the lessons at home, and possible resistance from parents (“Why are you asking my child to learn the math lesson at home on their own instead of teaching them in class? Aren’t you paid to teach math?”).
ReplyDeleteThe new math textbooks all have on-line help. You can access the book itself on-line (so many students don’t even bring the book home) as well tutorials on every topic, extra problems, practice quizzes, the odd numbered homework problems done out step by step, etc… The students in my algebra 2 honors class that use this book are bright, motivated, and generally come from middle class families with technology in the home. However, a good number of them do not use the on-line resources that come with the book, even though I encourage them to do so. I even tell them after the first unit I will no longer go over odd-numbered homework problems because they should be looking them up on-line. Still, many don’t bother to do it. One issue may be that students often do their homework after school in the hallway before sports practice or on the bus on the way to a game, etc… They use the book in these cases because they are not sitting in front of a computer and it would be hard to read math problems on their phone. Also, this class is the ONLY class in the entire math dept that even has a new textbook with these on-line help features. It will be years before all of our textbooks are replaced with newer ones that have the on-line component. Therefore, I really think kids should still be comfortable using a textbook and other print sources. Right now I think we should weight them equally.
John, being an elementary school teacher, made me think about younger students who do not have access to technology in the palm of their hands like the high school students I teach. And don’t we want the younger students to learn their math skills without the use of a calculator, etc… Even the CCSS do not suggest using technology until the middle and high school levels. In an article entitled “Common Core and ‘Appropriate Tools’: Calculators, Spreadsheets, Etc” found in an Education Week blog, Erik Robelen writes, “…specific examples of technology use don't start appearing in the content standards until the middle school grades, and most appear at the high school level.”
Wow, Cindy, that is something I did not even think about! But you're right! There is not much in the CCSS in regards to the elementary grades; however, it is common knowledge that the younger a child is when he/she is learning, the faster he/she will learn. You bring up a very good point here. If we expect our middle school and high school students to use technology, then students in the younger grades should be, at the very least, introduced to it as well.
DeleteThis concerns me! It makes me really wonder who is at the reins in developing the new CCSS and how knowledgeable they are when it comes to the "learning process". This process is very different from the content and curriculum.
Technology should be on the CCSS, K-12!
-Laura
I just want to clarify that I was referring only to MATH standards for younger grades. There are writing and reading standards for younger grades that include technology. The following can be found in the CCSS for grades 4 and 8:
DeleteW.4.6. With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
RI.8.7. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.
Cindy
I, like Laura, am torn between which methods educators should be focusing upon. Traditional skills are essential as are technological skills. Yes, as Ali mentioned, calculators are used in math classes today but students still need to gain the basic skills in order to understand the process of solving higher level math problems. Students can utilize computers for word processing, editing, spell checking, looking up a word's meaning- which is excellent- but the basic skills are still essential and need to be taught- not everyone will have a computer at the ready, as John noted. Students still need to gain the skills to read lengthy passages for meaning and to summarize which is a traditional skill that will always be essential in order to be a critical learner who question the facts rather than accept whatever response is offered. In our 1st class we discussed how technology is inequitable from school to school and home to home. This is another great reason to equip students in both traditional learning and 21st century technology. In Digital Citizenship chapter 1 it speaks of the need for teachers to be trained to instruct students to utilize technology effectively and safely- which will take time. Many teachers, like me are ill-prepared at present. (My students often show ME more effective and faster ways to search for information!) And our schools do not have the technology to give each student a device. Change is occurring but slowly. Our high school has created a committee to focus on teaching and utilizing technology and I will participate. It is exciting to me to be a part of this process!
ReplyDeleteIn short, both methods are essential, especially now.
Tricia
I agree with Tricia when she stated that both traditional methods and 21st century learning skills are essential. There is no question that without a basic knowledge of fundamental skills, learning cannot take place effectively. The challenge for teachers is that as students get older the focus of their education should be to shift away from fundamental skills to skills that begin to prepare them for the work force and the world that they will encounter post high school. In the article The Second Educational Revolution by A. Collins and R. Halverson, both authors state “technology has transformed our larger society. It has become central to peoples reading, writing, calculating and thinking, which are the major concerns of school”. Therefore, technology is a part of society and schools should be a reflection of society. The common core standard for 5th grade, Reading for Information 5.7 says” Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or resolve a problem efficiently” This standard is telling the reader that both print sources and digital sources are valuable. The challenge for the educational community is to determine where the balance is at this point in time. As technology and society change, the balance will inevitably shift towards placing a larger weighting on the use of digital resources rather than print.
DeleteWe live in an awkward moment of human civilization. When they look back hundreds of years from now, we--along with our parents--will be the generation that they talk about as having been the bridge between the "mechanical" world and the digital world. Personally, I don't like the idea of relying too much on computers, smart phones, etc. I'm a "worst case scenario" kind of guy, so I always wonder how much trouble we'd be in if we were suddenly stripped of our toys. The phrase "use it or lose it" comes to mind; by using technology to do all of our calculations for us, give us calendar reminders, etc., are we becoming less proficient at other skills? Most will respond: "But if we don't need those skills, what's the point of keeping them alive?" To an extent, I agree, but I guess I'm not ready to toss the old skills I grew up with so easily.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, we do have a responsibility as teachers to prepare our students for the world that they're growing into. John, you're absolutely right that if kids don't have access to computers at home, it's not an even playing field. It falls on the schools to provide these supplies for the students. A lot are doing it already, but it will take some time until no student is wonting for an iPad or whatever's needed in the classroom. And what happens when we do get there, and iPads are obsolete? Schools' budgets for supplying up-to-date technology is going to be quite an issue as we move forward.
If I were to talk specifically about technology in my classroom, I can't say it factors in all that much. I teach band. The skills involved are reading music (which you can only get better at by reading more and more music), playing an instrument (which you get better at by playing your instrument), and following the conductor so the group plays as a unit. There are several other skills involved, of course, and not all of them have to do with music necessarily, but I can't say that students' fluency in technological devices would really effect them as a band student. It's one of the reasons I love teaching that class: it's timeless. Music technology is something else; I don't teach that.
I feel the same way as a math teacher. I use the graphing calculator on a daily basis with the graphing calculator overhead and find it invaluable but that is not the kind of technology we are discussing here really. Shane asked us to comment on how students search for and analyze information - traditional methods or on-line research using hyperlinks, etc... Just like you teaching music, I never have my math students do this kind of research so it was really hard for me to answer this question.
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