Rethinking Technology

Teachers face the difficult task of educating students in an ever-changing world, full of technological advances and short attention-spans. Our society has become much more advanced, and in order for students to enter the "real world" after years of schooling with the skills and knowledge to succeed, teachers needs to make changes in the classroom.

As I have been reading the book Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America, Collins and Halverson have been schooling me in the advantages of incorporating technology in the classroom. One specific point they have made is the fact that school has become an information source that doesn't apply as much to the real world as it has evolved over the years. They discussed a poll they took with Harvard students, asking them what they knew about the moon, its phases, and the seasons. Only 1-3 students (out of 24) knew the correct answers, yet these are facts students are taught in elementary school. Their point? In today's world, we need to make the best use of our time in the classroom, teaching students things that they actually need to survive and prosper in our evolving world.

Not only do Collins and Halverson discuss the importance of life application in the classroom, but they describe the endless possibilities that technology has to offer teachers and students. It was interesting to read about "just-in-time learning" and "customization" because both of these concepts correlate directly with the concept of differentiation, which we are taught is one of, if not the most, important ideas on which to base our teaching. Just-in-time learning describes the process of searching for specific information that we need, as individuals, in order to know in order to react to a situation or accomplish a task. Every student is different, so using technology to fit specific needs is both helpful and somewhat essential for each individual to grow and learn in their own way. Customization is similar to this concept in that it we have the ability to customize what each student desires and needs to learn. Personalization and differentiation are difficult tasks for teachers to address with classes of fifteen to thirty students, but technology can be used to assess, give feedback, and encourage reflection for specific students when teachers use the proper and adequate computer programs!

Although I agree with a lot of what I have read so far, I will continue to encourage face-to-face interaction with peers because technology cannot replace that entirely. I do not think Collins and Halverson are implying that it substitutes for group work and conversation as a class, but I want to emphasize that technology should not replace reality, and real-life interaction and experience!

Check out Prezi!

Recently, I was exposed to the online program of Prezi, which is a program that makes presentations more fluid and exciting than the generic Microsoft Word PowerPoint program. Not to knock PowerPoint, but Prezi is neat program that is free and can add some energy to a simple presentation you are sharing with an audience, whether it is peers or students.

There are three different ways to join Prezi, one being a free license, which is how I joined the program. When you join free, your presentations are posted automatically on the Prezi site (which doesn't bother me personally, but something to think about if you are willing to pay some money). Here is an example that I created in a few minutes, just to show you the possibilities!

As a teacher, I am excited to use this program because it is easy to choose a template depending on the type of information we are learning about and discussing in class; Prezi provides different types of flow charts and backgrounds that apply to different genres and ways of note-taking. Furthermore, when you click on the text, it is easy to change font, size, angle, color, and words. I can easily add more boxes in a presentation, similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint. There are many similarities between the two, but I have found that Prezi offers a different type of fluidity so that students feel like they are interacting more with the information!

Students, feel free to use this program on our upcoming English project! Or even a proposal to your parents about getting a dog or raise in allowance? Parents...do I hear chore chart presentation? And fellow teachers, the possibilities are endless! I recommend this program, and if you need help with using the website, they offer a tutorial on the homepage! Good luck!