Wednesday, August 31, 2016
About Me
Hello everyone and I welcome you to my new blog for questions, answers, and discussion on Literature and the English language. A little about myself, I am a 24-year-old student at California State University Northridge studying English while also earning my secondary education credential. As such, I have witnessed a lot of different technology being used in the classroom, and I have found that with the changing times, technology has and should play a much bigger part in education than before.
As an English major, I do feel that students do need to use pen and paper for the majority of the time, mostly to help with their writing. However, I also feel that technology could help those students who are struggling with writing. For example, work processors have become a great tool for students to help with their spelling and grammar. While some purists believe that this may be cheating, I believe that this could give students more confidence in writing and being able to articulate what they want to say. Also, I'd be a liar if I said that I don't find spellcheck and grammarcheck useful in everyday life. On top of that, certain programs available for ELD students could help them understand their schoolwork better, with translation being available when needed.
I feel that especially for secondary education, many teenagers are becoming obsessed with being on their smartphones 24/7. However, I believe that rather than force students to shy away from using technology, we as teachers should encourage it. For example, in my 525EN class, we were taught about the different apps a teacher could use in the classroom setting using the students' smartphones. One tool my teacher used was a poll program that allowed students to answer questions live using their phones, and the screen would show the results of the entire class. Things like this not only make it easier for a teacher to evaluate the whole class in an instant, but it keeps the students' attention and allows them to have a little fun with their phones in class.
Overall, I can understand the argument that students are becoming obsessed with tech, but I also can see the world around us developing around this lifestyle. While students should be able to write an essay with just a pen and paper, there should also be prep and encouragement to learn how to type and use certain programs. I know for a lot a jobs these days employers find value in potential employees knowing certain programs, and I believe that by discouraging students to be interested in tech, we're only holding them back from the future.
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Sierra,
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree when you say that teachers should not shy away from technology, but should rather embrace it. The first thing that came to mind was the advancement technology would have on ELD students. Not only would it make lessons easier to follow and comprehend, but even average performing students might get a huge boost in their performance with the advancement of technology.
I also took SED 525, and I remember using our smartphones in class for anonymous opinion polling. I believe that using technology like this like many of us do in everyday life, is essential for the future and also job markets. We should prepare students to merge work with technology because that is what will most likely be expected as professionals when they get older.
Overall, I really enjoyed your post and look forward to reading more from your blog. I think that your opinions are highly insightful for any aspiring teacher to heed as they move into the classroom one day to teach future pupils.
Hey Sierra!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that our generation now is so obsessed with the latest and greatest technology. I know that I myself am guilty about wanting the new technology that I can use to transfer files so easily through NFC exchange instead of USBs or back in the day when there were floppy disks, or even TVs that I can screen share with my laptop. It is so helpful if your teaching to be able to pull up a video or an article that an entire classroom can see. I do think that we abuse technology most of the time, but I think that when we use technology in a way that furthers our education it helps to improve our learning. I also agree that physically writing helps us retain more information than when we type up our stories or thoughts onto a laptop. I really enjoyed your thoughts and I think that we'll all be faced with the question of how to incorporate technology within our classrooms.
Thanks!
Nicole :)
Hello Sierra, I really love your blog. After reading your first blog post I can see your personality shine through even to the layout of the website. I think your philosophy to media in the classroom is very realistic and I can really tell that you thought about the topic from all perspectives. You seem like a very calm and positive person who will turn out to be a great and successful teacher. Anyways, you have a very good point about how students are discouraged from using phones in the classroom. You are actually making the credential program very appealing to me now. It seems like some aspects of the program will be focusing on new features teachers are actually utilizing in the classrooms. What grade do you hope to teach? I’m very curious because no one is saying on their blogs which grade they would like to teach.
ReplyDeleteNice post. I totally agree with you in terms of teachers not shying away from technology but embracing it, and using it to enhance their teaching methods. Using the app on smartphones to poll the class and use it to facilitate students answering class questions is genius. I'm thinking utilizing something like that so that the class can all play a jeopardy style game and answer questions in a playful game type setting but also learn about the subject matter at hand at the same time. To address the last part of your post where you bring up the argument that students are becoming obsessed with tech. I think in a generation students and learning will be one with technology. The potential benefits of this ever increasing level of technology in our lives is invaluable to teaching future generations and in a few years students being too obsessed with tech won’t even be a valid argument because the two will be one.
ReplyDeleteNice post. I totally agree with you in terms of teachers not shying away from technology but embracing it, and using it to enhance their teaching methods. Using the app on smartphones to poll the class and use it to facilitate students answering class questions is genius. I'm thinking utilizing something like that so that the class can all play a jeopardy style game and answer questions in a playful game type setting but also learn about the subject matter at hand at the same time. To address the last part of your post where you bring up the argument that students are becoming obsessed with tech. I think in a generation students and learning will be one with technology. The potential benefits of this ever increasing level of technology in our lives is invaluable to teaching future generations and in a few years students being too obsessed with tech won’t even be a valid argument because the two will be one.
ReplyDeleteHello Sierra! Great post and excellent input on how technology should be used in the classroom. It is important that teachers should embrace technology in the classroom rather than shy away from it just because they have this belief that it is “lazy”. With technology constantly changing, and rapidly, it is important for the classroom to be fully emerged with technology so that students will be able to use this new technology.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that students nowadays are attached at the hip with their phones, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Most students have smart phones nowadays, which need internet to function. With the internet at their fingertips and new apps that are designed for education, it would be foolish of new educators and current ones as well, to act as if technology is a problem in the classroom rather than a way to improve the way that we have been teaching.