Make it Real!

In the article "Constructing Learning: Using Technology to Support Teaching for Understanding," Thomas Sherman and Barbara Kurshan discuss the idea that in order for technology to be of real benefit in the classroom it can't just be thrown on top of content as a flashy extra; it must be integrated into teaching practices in an organic and meaningful way. To illustrate how this can be done the article lists eight characteristics of a good education according to constructivist theory. According to this way of thinking, high quality education is learner centered, interesting, applicable to real life, social, active, aware of time, inclusive of appropriate feedback and supportive. The article goes on to suggest ways that technology can be included to improve teaching in all of these areas and, hopefully, improve student performance and success.

The ideas suggested in this article are important because they reflect the need for technology that enhances, not distracts from, quality teaching practices and valuable content information. I know that many times during my schooling technology was added to classes as an afterthought or to fulfill a specific requirement. Often, if technology was used at all it was not at all vital to the lesson and probably could and should have been left out. This is especially troublesome when you start to think about how integrated technology is into our daily lives. There are probably many high schoolers who use technology regularly everywhere except in school, and the fact that this built in teaching tool is so often ignored or misused is a cause for concern.

Although I am comfortable using computers and my cell phone, I would definitely not say that I am completely up to date with technology and I know that my future students will most likely be much more proficient at using technology than I am. Therefore, it will be even more vital that I include technology in an organic and meaningful way in my lessons. I strongly believe in the importance of the previously discussed eight characteristics of good education and it excites me to know that I can incorporate technology into these teaching practices. For me and other new teachers, the key to reaching our students will be not creating an entirely new format for teaching technology, but using technology in ways that make the good techniques we already know even better.

Using Technology Organically

In the article "A Range of Use: Technology in Learning" author Cheryl Lemke talks about some of the ways that technology can enhance learning in a natural way. She says that technology has three major uses in the classroom: being a driver for change, being a bridge to higher academic achievement and being a platform for informed decision making and accountability. The focus of this article appears to be on using technology to get students excited about learning, since it has been shown that students who are engaged and excited about school achieve higher academic success. This is incredibly important to classroom teachers because it means that we can't just have students do part of their work on a computer and expect them to reap the full benefits of educational technology. Instead, we need to make sure that the technology is being used in a way that both enhances the content and interests the students. If we can use technology in a way that makes our teaching more personal and in depth without seeming forced the students can benefit immensely.
The article "Evaluating Information Found on the Internet" focuses on how the internet requires a whole new set of skills to determine whether information is valid or useful. Although the internet has greatly added to the ease of research, it has also made research more difficult by providing a lot of information of that is not reliable or true. The author discusses several different categories of knowledge that are needed to accurately assess whether information found online is reliable. As teachers it is important to teach our students how to determine what information they can trust because as learning becomes more individualized students will need to have these skills. If students aren't sure how to tell if a web site is valid, they may rely on inaccurate information that could negatively affect their academic or personal success.

cheating in the 21st century

Of the three readings this week, the one that really made me think about my future career as a teacher was the e-cheating article. I have spent several years dealing with technologically enhanced cheating from a student perspective, but the issue seems even more critically when looked at from a teacher's standpoint. This article pointed out that while plagiarism, such as copying an essay from a magazine or book, has always been a problem in institutions of higher education, the commonality of the internet and the huge amount of writing it makes available has made the issue even more prevalent. In addition to legitimate sources of information like journals and news articles, there are also sites solely devoted to the morally questionable business of selling academic papers. While some of these sites post disclaimers that their content should be used for inspiration only, it is pretty clear that their actual purpose is to give or sell students pieces of writing that they can turn in as their own work. With so many opportunities to digitally cheat, teachers and professors must make a concentrated effort to deter their students from turning in fraudulent work. This can be done by creating assignments that make cheating more difficult (such as assigning papers on very specific topics) as well as informing students about what exactly constitutes as cheating and its moral and legal implications.
As a high school or middle school teacher, I'm sure I will have to deal with students who cheat using the internet. I also acknowledge the fact that, no matter how hard I try to make it to cheat, there will always be students who figure out how to get out of doing their work. Because of that, I will also have to take some time to assess whether the work my students turn in has been plagiarized. If my school can afford it I definitely want to have my students submit their papers to an online plagiarism check site, such as turnitin.com, and I will also be on the lookout for papers that seem far above the level of the student who turned it in. Overall, even though cheating is a big problem I am not going to let it stop me being a good educator.

Malcolm Gladwell, Fleetwood Mac and Never Giving Up

In his keynote speech at the National Education Technology Conference, Malcolm Gladwell spoke to his audience about the importance of hard work by using an illustration of the band Fleetwood Mac. Although they are now well known and have enjoyed a large amount of success in the music industry, the band put out 16 albums before they received any sort of noticable attention. Although the group was obviously talented, they still had to put in years of hard work before they attained the success they now have. Gladwell also talked about how the Beatles, despite their natural ability, worked incredibly long hours to hone their skills before they broke into the mainstream music scene. These examples were used to introduce Gladwell's main theme: that time and hard work are always necessary to become proficient at anything valuable. Gladwell also informed his audience that it ususally takes at least 10,000 hours of practicing a skill before you become an expert in that field. Essentially, you have to put in around 10 years of work before you completely master something. Nearly everyone who is famous for being good at something, from Beethoven to the Beatles, has put in this large amout of time before they reach any level of success.
So how does this relate to education? Pretty directly, as it turns out. Gladwell revealed to his audience that higher level math skills are directly related to how long a student is willing to sit down, focus, and really try to complete a seemingly endless task. In other words, nearly every measurement of academic performance is really a measurement of a student's ability to work hard at something. This means that, at least as far as academics are concerned, natural ability means very little when compared to hard work. In my own educational experience I have often used the excuse "I can't do math, I'm an English major" in order to explain my abysmal math skills. However, according to Gladwell, me and all of the other poor math students aren't suffering from a lack of skill but rather a lack of motivation.
In my opinion, what needs to come next is a shift in attitude about academic performance and hard work in general. Maybe teachers could cut back on praising students for producing perfect work and begin offering more accolades for trying, failing and trying again. If hard work is really the biggest factor in determining academic success, then it becomes pretty clear that teaching the value of hard work is what teachers should be focusing on. While I understand that students needs to be rewarded for being good at something, I also want to praise them for not being so good and still persevering.