So, I believe the most interesting, noncoursework aspect of our coursework is the diversity of age and experiential influences. We all seek the same overarching purposes- to learn to teach, to educate ourselves, to change our futures. Yet, in the process of attending classes, we end up learning so much more.
For instance, Wednesday was a day full of reflecting on our past technology experiences, and I (as I hope many others) had to begin to rethink a lot of my current views on technology and teaching. I mean, cell phones were always the teacher's enemy in my high school- a distraction, nuisance, an object that had to be removed upon site. This, in and of itself, was always a worry for teachers- if they took away a cell phone, would there be repercussions? It's interesting to look at a cellphone as a tool.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about it all is that the true importance of technology is not its use- the value lies in the effectiveness of use. I think this is an exciting, important distinction- one that I look forward to exploring further!
Welcome to 504! You make a great point about effectiveness of use. Looking forward to hearing more about it from you!
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I think of with the cell phone use is if everyone is expected to participate with a cell phone are there issues with students not being able to afford to have a cell phone and then feeling inadequate in class or am I being completely naive that not everyone has a cellphone? To your point on effectiveness on use, I am curious if there is any evidence or studies to suggest that students perform better or learn certain skills better with the use of certain technologies?
ReplyDeleteTo me I'm still not entirely sure how a cell phone could become a useful tool in the classroom, especially if not everyone has a smartphone that can connect to the internet (that being the only real application I can see), I know personally I have a POS phone that can't do anything but call people and kinda text, so I would really worry about the exclusion of poorer students in the class. Also, it seems it would be hard to keep students on task if phones were allowed in the classroom...
ReplyDeleteBTW love the blog name lol
ReplyDeleteI am really curious to see how cell phones will be used in the class, I bet they will be used in the same way that clickers are used.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing about cell phones. If they were used effectively in the classroom then maybe they wouldn't be such a bad thing to have around. I wonder how long it will take for cell phones to be accepted in the classroom. I wonder how long it took for other universal technologies like computers or calculators took to be accepted in the classroom.
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