Monday, May 18, 2009
Blog 2- teaching in the 21st century
Please read carefully the latest statistics regarding kids' use of technology found above under the name BLOG 2. What statistics interest you the most and do you think have the biggest impact on you as a teacher? How does this change how you are going to teach children in the 21st century?
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Throughout reading the article and the different statistics, one of the statements that I found to be most interesting is the statistic that states 'Games make it easier to understand difficult concepts – 51%'. I thought this percent would be way higher because it seems that when learning is connected to what students enjoy (playing games) they are more likely to focus and pay attention to what is at hand. Therefore, the percent would be higher.
ReplyDeleteAnother statistic I found to be interesting says '84% say that their school’s implementation of technology enhances students achievement'. This is interesting to me because it I agree with it. Using technology in the classroom is extremely beneficial to students.
I feel like these statistics will change the way I teach students in the 21st century because now I have in mind what needs to happen in my classroom. I need to have technology used in my lesson, whether it be a powerpoint or a smartboard.
I thought the statistics in the article were very interesting. I enjoyed how they offered many different statistics from different groups of people.
ReplyDeleteA statistic I could relate to was how girls in all grades continue to be more likely to
identify themselves as having beginner or average tech skills compared to boys, and less likely to say “advanced, and boys are more likely to be advanced. I have always felt that my technology skills are not advanced.
I really was surprised to discover that downloading music is the number one activity for students to do outside of school. I thought for sure it would be social networking.
A statistic that will effect me as a teacher will be the fact that online learning is going to start to take place in the classroom. Many teachers today are incorporating online learning in their daily lesson plans.
I have come to realize that I will be for sure using different forms of technology in my classroom. The statistics will continue to grow every year and as a teacher I will have to be able to keep up with those statistics.
One of the statistics that I found to be very intersesting is that there are only 91% of teachers that e-mail. I assumed that 100% of teachers would at least be e-mailing one another. I was shocked to see that that small amount of people are not even technologically advanced enough to e-mail one another. It was also amazing to me to see how much more students knew than their teachers. I knew that the students would know more, but I was amazed to see just how much more.
ReplyDeleteI think that having the students know more about ttechnology than I do would really effect the class because students want to believe that there teacher knows everything and if they know more than you, you kind of look like you don't know what you are talking about at all. I know that I will have to keep taking technology classes so that I can advance my knowledge of technology and seem like I know enough to keep my class afloat.
This article was packed full of interesting and eye-opening quotes and statistics about technology. I was amazed when I found out that only 58% of parents think that technology accelerates learning opportunities for their children. I thought this percentage would have been much higher. Technology can make things more interesting to learn and will allow children to have fun when they are practicing what they have been taught. If the parents are not open to the idea of technology, then they are going to make the children scared of technology as well. I was also amazed when I found out that the teachers themselves wouldn’t like to learn more about integrating gaming technologies into teaching strategies. Only 50% of the teachers seemed interested in doing so. This too was an eye-opener for me. Computers can benefit students in so many ways, and even teachers don’t want to change their lesson plans. I think this is because they are not familiar with the benefits of technology and they do not want to learn new teaching concepts. These statistics make me want to use technology in my classroom and help other teachers learn how it can benefit them. It can also make their life a little less chaotic when it comes to teaching and missing assignments. It’s so much easier to communicate with the parents online than to try several times during the day to catch them on the phone.
ReplyDeleteWe are the teachers of tomorrow. Using technology and incorporating that into learning is something that will soon, and should, become mandatory. I am not surprised that so many students are interested in online gaming. Incorporating gaming into technology would not only grab the attention of the student but help in memory retention of the material. I think it is sad that such a small portion of teachers and parents alike endorse gaming as a part of education. It is our job and a challenge that we accept as teachers to engage the students and prepare them for their future, not necessarily the standards we are living in today. It should be mandatory for all teachers to take continuing education courses that update their technological skills. We are, after all, the ones who are supposed to be the instructors....therefore we should always try to stay on top of the game.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see that not all teachers incorporate technology into not only there everyday life but in there classrooms. This is the age of technology and we as teachers and future teachers need to be up to speed and know as much about technology as possible. It's astonishing to see that only 66% of students thought they were prepared for the jobs of the future. I thought this would be higher. I know a lot of old school teachers aren't incorporating technology into their classrooms and that's hurting the students in a way they'll never know. I can understand why some schools tell their students not to use their personal technology devises in school, but if the students are more comfortable using their own devises then we should let them. Maybe then they would learn more and excel in their learning and the numbers of technology ready students would be higher. I think it should be made mandatory for all teacher to take further education in technology to be able to keep up with our students and give the older teachers the information to be able to use more technology in their classrooms.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I was shocked at how many students in middle school and high school are involved with socail networking. 40% of middle school students and 67% of high school students have a personal
ReplyDeletewebsite (Facebook, MySpace, Xanga. I know that Facebook and MySpace are popular, but I never realized how many middle schooler are using these sites. As a middle schooler, I was so busy with sports, school, church, and 4-H that I never had time for sites like MySpace. Perhaps that's why I am so schocked at how many middle schoolers are using these social networking sites.
As a teacher, I would consider have a social networking page as well. I could have helpful tips and ideas on there to help my students outside of the classroom. Also, I would like to gain the knowledge that they have with these different sites(to keep me updated).
I feel that this will change how I am gonig to teach kids. I will have to focus more on using technology in the classroom. I also agree that it will be easier to connect with the parents over emialing and the internet rather than trying to set up face to face appointments all the time. I do still believe that the teacher and parents should meet every once in a while however.
This article is full of really good information and it surprised me. I haven't always used technology but I know that all my friends and teachers now have e-mail addresses I can reach them by. To see that only 91% of teachers have e-mail is very surprising to me. I also found it very surprising to know that so many people want to take classes online. I know that it is simpler and you can do it on your time, but you miss out on the physical part of the school experience. I think I am definitely going to be a technology teacher. I want to use the computer, I want my students to be able to use it, and I want them to be confortable with it. We have just started and its only going to get more popular and who knows almost everything will be online soon. Technology is something we are going to use and as the new teachers we are going to have to be ready for it.
ReplyDeleteI found this article pretty suprising, along with the rest of you guys. The statistics were unbelievable. I found it kind of unacceptable that the major reason students faced problems on school computers was because of slow internet connections. It was also interesting to find that students are so eager to include technology with their school work and that 50% of students would like to be able to access it online.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that a laptop for every child is in the future. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. While I know that laptops can make my job as a teacher easier, I also think they might make teaching more difficult. Kids get distracted easily as it is. A laptop sitting in front of them will only make goofing off in class more tempting. There would have to be a strict set of rules to the use of the laptops in the classroom.
While this article was a fantastic one that showcased very interesting statistics, I felt that all the article did was to shove facts in as little space as possible. That being said, I really did find all of the paper cramming statistics to be very interesting and somewhat shocking. Right off the bat, I began with the section that identified 70% of students describing themselves as computer efficent. While this statistic made sense in todays society, I really wanted to know more about the 27% that were computer proficent, how exactly did these thoughts differ from those of the mainstream society?
ReplyDeleteI also found it right in line that the statistics pointed to girls having the lower ability level on the computer. I believe that this directly correlated to the next fact that showed boys having played more video games. I think that the gaming lead to boys being able to pick-up on technology better. However, I do think that this trend will even out as social networking sites are around longer, since they have a larger young female draw to them.
As I read through the rest of the article, I noticed a big trend, kids were practically crying out for technology to be used in more aspects of education, and all the administrators and parents were doing with technology was e-mailing each other. The kids are using ipods and cell phones and PDA's, and the adults are just using the most basic of functions on an out of date computer. I think that the minute teachers can put lessons into a podcast or classes are able to IM each other during a class discussion, we will finally engage all students. We are on the right track with trying to get students individual laptops, but I think that first we must try to branch out our lessons to include technology, and then worry about things such as the personal laptops.
A statistic that will effect me as a teacher will be the fact that online learning is going to start to take place in the classroom. Many teachers today are incorporating online learning in their daily lesson plans. This makes it easier for teachers, as well as students because learning can take place through the deifferent learning styles and make it more fun and engaging.
ReplyDeleteI was dumb-founded when I read that only 58% of parents think that technology accelerates learning opportunities for their children. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of parents are set in thier ways, and they are used to the text book style teaching and learning. This comes from the whole "different is bad" perspective. I do not agree with it, but I think a lot of parents feel this way.
As far as changing the way that I am going to teach students, I think that being technology savy is a great thing. It allows me to reach out to different learning styles and make learning fun. Also, so many children are up to par with technology, it is almost like second nature to them.
I thought this article was great. It was interesting to know all these statistics by different kind of groups. The one statistic that kind of shocked me was that only 3 percent of elementary students sat they don't play electronic games on some kind of device,9 percent in middle school and 17 percent in high school. That really made me read that twice. everywhere I turn I always see kids on the psp or the nintendo ds. I thought that would be so much higher.
ReplyDelete