Julia, Languages and the Digital Generation!
Archive for August, 2008
August 24, 2008 at 2:45 am · Filed under Reaction, Unspecified
This is a reaction to Kayla’s entry from the 11 August. I am not from the NET nation. I am from the generation that started playing ‘Snakes’ on Commodore 64s or Ataris that were owned by my friends’ bigger brothers. Computers were for nerds (even if they were good looking). My mum sent me to a typewriting course at age 15. We learned on old fashioned typewriters. A year later she announced I should expand that skill and start taking writing lessons on a computer. That was my first experience on a PC. Whilst I was cross with her at the time, I am today very happy she made me do it. In regards to Kayla’s questions why we are not ‘experiencing what we’re being told to teach’: compared to my own time at school (and first time round at university for that matter), I feel UTS is doing great in terms of digital delivery methods – I wouldn’t want any less face-to-face instructions or more e-readings (give me hardcopy book any time!) than we currently have. I guess because I don’t feel I have missed out by not learning with ICT in the classroom, my feelings towards inclusion take a midle ground approach. I do feel very computer literate and I thoroughly enjoy using multimedia and IT as part of my every day life and aim to do so in my teaching. Yet, I don’t think that Digital Resources are the only way to enable experimental learning and I would wish to be able to teach students the value of ‘real’ as well as ‘cyber’ life.
Digital resources enable experiential learning—something in tune with Net Gen preferences. Rather than being told, Net Geners would rather construct their own learning, assembling information, tools, and frameworks from a variety of sources.
August 24, 2008 at 2:12 am · Filed under Reaction, Unspecified
This is a reaction to Ming’s Blog “e-learning 7-12″ and the point she makes that in the traditional schoolong environment, the teacher has always sat/stood in front of the classroom, with the class facing the teacher. To me this is not necessarily contrary to the idea of constructinism. It seems the most logical room layout when you’re trying to reach 20 odd people at the same time, in terms of accoustic and visibility. However, there is plenty of opportunity to arrange the desks the students are on in a way that lends itself to group work and ‚exploring’. At my school in Germany, we voted at the beginning of every school year how we wanted the seating arranged – the U-shape was a favourite. But we also readily moved tables into other formations, depending on the task. In my last prac, the classrooms were a lot smaller than what I am used to from my own schooling and it would have been hard to change the seating on a regular basis – especially since there weren’t any breaks between lessons to change them back (in Germany we always had 5 minutes before the start of the next class). But I compensated for the inflexibility in the layout by making a point of walking around a lot and I think that we have moved beyond the classroom scenario depicted on a picture which Matthew showed in his first lecture. Generally, I think elements of constructionism need to be incorporated in some way, shape or form into any programme. In my opinion students should absolutley be encouraged to become independent, responsible and self-regulated learners, but I also believe they rely on proper teacher modelling and leadership.
August 19, 2008 at 7:39 pm · Filed under Regular, Unspecified
I saw this eye catching headline in the SMH today: “Phone a Friend in Exam”: A College in Croydon is allowing the use of computers, ipods and mobiles phones (”Who wants to be a Millionaire”-style) during upcoming exams to give students a ‘real life experience’. Says the Principal “In their working lives they will never need to carry enormous amounts of information around in their heads. What they will need to do is access information from all their sources quickly and they will need to check the reliability of their information.” I think this statement is a dangerous generalisation and encourages kids to take ‘the route of least resistance’ rather than instilling a thirst for knowledge. Besides, I don’t see a doctor telling a badly mauled patient in an ER to “just wait a few minutes to see if there is a reference to this sort of injury on the net”. Or a judge, half way though delivering a verdict, asking for a time out because he or she needs to refresh their memory on a certain past judgement crucial to the case at hand. Yes, it is true that information is more readily accessible today than it was in the past and kids absolutely need to know how to access and properly reference sources of information. And of course there is nothing wrong with playful learning and using entertainment as a tool in ensuring that learning occurs. But I am concerned that real learning will fall by the wayside if kids learn to solely rely on other methods of accessing information. Whilst I am all for making it realistic and teaching lifeskills as well as academic skills, I think we need to remember that if we’re teaching our kids to rely on outside help ALL THE TIME rather than building up an expertise FOR THEMSELVES, there will come the point where there won’t be any friend’s left to phone. I think if this development is anything to go by, we’re seriously on our way to ‘edutaining’, not ‘educating’ our kids.
August 16, 2008 at 8:42 pm · Filed under Regular, Unspecified
I have just finished mulling my way through the article “The Zen Art of Teaching”, which we were given in the subject for Language Methods. I am not sure if it is because English is not the author’s (Peter Baumgartner) first language, but I found the article hard to read (being German myself I thought I could identify a few sentences which would make sense in German but must have gotten lost in the translation). But the article raises some interesting points. Basically, Baumgartner outlines 3 prototypical modes of teaching and learning and discusses their consequences for the design of eLearning environments. The 3 models are ‘transfering knowledge’, ‘tutoring’ and ‘coaching’ – a constructivist approach (hence they vary in their emphasis on student autonomy and the last one is what teachers should aim for). Baumgartner basically says that some Content Management Systems (CMS) lend themselves more naturally to each of these methods, however the boundaries are overlapping. He distinguishes 5 different types of CMS suitable for different types of educational scenarios for eLearning: Production systems, Weblogs, Groupware, Portals and Wikis. And in his eyes, weblogs have the highest potential for changing traditional teaching culture towards the third (constructivist) method.
Worth noting that Mr Baumgartner has his own blog on the subject of eLearning….though most of it is in German.
August 14, 2008 at 10:42 pm · Filed under Reaction, Unspecified
This is a reaction to Virginie’s “Regular Posting 1″ (14 August 2008). Virginie has unearthed a little gem in cyberspace – a website of a French teacher in Korea, who seems to have set a benchmark in terms of what the ‘4th’ reality can do to LOTE teaching (and it’s got some great resources for teachers, too!). It’s an excellent way for students of French to write and publish in the target language. Browsing through Rodolphe’s site, though, I am wondering, if this was my blog, would I care about correcting everything that gets published? One great advantage that Internet technologies offer is ‘authenticity’ in that the material that can be accessed has not been ‘adapted’ or ’simplified’, so the students are encouraged to deconstruct meaning in their own time. But when they in turn publish something – would it be my duty to correct every mistake they make? Or do I let them get away with it on this platform? I am inclined to say ‘yes’ to my own question in this regard. A) to keep my sanity (if I am to believe Mark Prensky and my students spend every waking hour publishing stuff in cyber space, I may have to waive goodbye to my social life). And B) because knowing they won’t be ‘monitored’ may encourage a wider use and more adventorous endeavours. But on the other hand, isn’t it my duty to help them perfect their French and German? Has anyone else got an oponion on this? How can I sensibly incorporate blogs, wikis and social networking sites into my teaching and -correcting schedule without it taking over my programme? Maybe discussing ‘recurring’ errors at a specially dedicated hour once a month? Stay tuned. I may come back to this one…..
August 6, 2008 at 5:03 pm · Filed under Regular, Unspecified
This is in response to the article “Want to be my friend? What you need to know about social technologies”, which can be read in full here Lamb & Johnson.htm.
I’d call this article “Teen Digital Generation” in a nutshell. A succinct run-down of terminology and technology. Although it mentions downside of social technologies, these concentrate on the ‘dangers’ of the net in terms of ‘cyberbullies’ and ’sex predators’.
I’d be interesting to hear what ‘online’ community do for our kids ’social skills’….in an online world you can pretend to be anything or anyone. What picture do you paint of yourself in cyberworld and how reflective is this of your true self? I simply don’t see how an online, or ’second-life’ could ever match the beauty of face-to-face experiences. Accompanying it – yes. But I hold on to my view that simply knowing how to use technology doesn’t mean you have something interesting to say. Almost to the contrary, in a world where everyone thinks they’re 2 cents are worth publishing, I see the danger of putting out blogs/comments etc for the mere sake of it. Or because ‘everyone else has an opinion, so should I’. But there’s a difference between typing a ‘quick’ (everything is ‘quick’ in cyber world isn’t it?) comment on something and sitting down with a pen and paper (or word processor) and giving some reflective thoughts on a matter. Of course there are kids who will do exactly that – publish a well-researched, well-informed and well-articulated bit of writing on the net. But isn’t it down to us teachers to hone literacy, critiquing and debating skills so that students know to use these technologies AS ONE AVAILABLE medium to reach the world?
August 6, 2008 at 5:25 am · Filed under Regular, Unspecified
I just finished reading the article “Listen to the Natives”. I agree with many of Mark’s points. I definitely think that we need to pay attention to what students bring to the table and give them the opportunity for feedback. And it’s true, times are changing and teachers can’t afford to ‘close their eyes’ and hope that the digital generation will pass, because it won’t. So where I agree with him is that we need to take advantage of the technology and incorporate it into daily school life.
But I also detect a zealous undertone – he seems to see technology as the be all and end all – the ‘wunderkind’ that will miraculously turn all out students into mini-Einsteins. But just using technology doesn’t mean students are learning. In my eyes it would be dangerous to ‘get rid of the old and throw away the key’ over night. I think that a lot of ‘old-style’, offline teaching resources are still very, very valuable. How beautiful are books? And ‘real games’? I would want to encourage my students to get lost in a ‘hardcover’ print-book – there are plenty of science fiction reading games I remember from my childhood, which took me on the most exciting adventures. I didn’t need a computer – the books and my imagination were sufficient. The bliss of spending hours on end in a library! It’s convenient to be able to access the world via your computer – but by relying solely on this method you’re selling the kids short in my eyes. So, not everything about the ‘traditional’ teaching methods is bad.
I also think that Mark generalises when he implies that all students are as techno-savvy as his article has us believe. I haven’t had enough exposure to teenagers or read sufficient research to prove Mark wrong, but my gut feeling says that there are kids who don’t spend every waking hour in front of their computer…and the less technology articulated also need to be catered for! Or maybe I just know the reversed ‘nerds’ of this era? In my time at school, it was exactly the kids that Mark describes that were given that label! The rest of us were enjoying the outdoors, playing with our (shock-horror: real life!) friends!
So I’d say – technology & new media: Yes please. But used wisely and in conjunction with other methods and approaches.
August 3, 2008 at 1:27 am · Filed under Unspecified
Well, I better get on with the readings so that my first blog can take shape….for now just a quick test to see if I am getting the hang of this Edublog-thang!
Tschuess
JKO
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