Third Class Jan 21st
Two topics from class really stuck with me over the weekend and I have been chewing on both of them for a while. First, the Kaiser Report on Media Use. The numbers that we looked at in class were a little surprising. I suspected that media use was certainly up, but for kids to pack over 10 hours of media use into everyday seems staggering. Reading a little bit of the report reveals that this number does not include time spent texting on their cells phones (1.5 hours) or talking on their cell phones (33 minutes). Given that many students are involved in other activities (sports, clubs, etc) I wonder where these kids are finding time for anything else. Sleep seems to be the area where most kids cut back, but studies and homework also takes a hit. We saw in the video profile of the 3 kids that homework was either not a priority (xbox boy), or something that must be done in order to avoid punishment (losing media privileges). There is little or no intrinsic value associated with getting the homework done, just that it needs to be done so that I can play. While this attitude with students is nothing new (I often would have preferred playing, I still do sometimes), the opportunities for and level of distraction seem to be greater. The world is merely a click away, friends are sending constant messages. How are we, as teachers, to compete? I try to make grade 11 physics as interesting as I can, but there is only so much that I can do. Should we even be trying to compete? That is a whole other argument for another day.
I had a rather long draft saved where I talked about Grierson. I found his comment about picking the teachers of teachers being the job that he would most want. My original comment was rather long and meandering, so I will attempt to revise. Grierson obviously felt that having this position would afford him great influence over teacher training and in the long run some influence over students in general. Shaping their attitudes and skills, much like that of his film proteges. Alas, Grierson either was wrong or again just thinking a little differently. (The many different styles, beliefs, and methodologies that I have witnessed from professors over my many years of university training lead me to believe that there is no grand plot to have us all under one influence, so no one has caught on to this idea....yet). I do wonder what someone with his vision would have done in this day, with all of the technologies out there to allow people to get their message out to everyone else. I imagine that he would, much like talking to the film crew at the party, ask us if we don't find it incredibly boring having to sift through so much junk, the boring stuff, the random musings of millions.
James,
ReplyDeleteThe motivation factor always has been and will be primary. How we tap into that force is where we as educational technologists need to spend some quality thought time. What if we were to have kids do game analyses and then do presentations on what they learned about how to play the game to win? They could even demonstrate strategies. Then, we could weave in there something about what makes the games tick underneath. Also, what if we were to offer courses in game analysis, even when teaching language arts? Students could be required to write reports about the games they would choose, and in so doing, learn the grammar and spelling of the reporting language. The curriculum we are paid to teach isn’t connecting with many kids. Yes, the pre-calc, English literature, physics and other top students will always exist, but that 20% population is not the one we need to find ways to reach. We as teachers need not compete with pervasive distractions if we row our boats down the stream, gently, I might add. The mandated curriculum calls us and our students to paddle up the stream, against the flow of the natural currents in the greater environment. Thanks to Dr. Wayne Dyer for the row, row, row your boat idea. It’s people like us who need to innovate and demonstrate how to make the ever present gadgets work in the classroom.
Your comment about Grierson and professors rings true. Yet, we all know good teaching and engaging material when we experience it. What’s the common thread among the different personalities who teach well and provide engagement that keeps us coming back, intrinsically? I would like to have heard Grierson’s rationale for wanting to choose the teachers who teach teachers.
Do you think it is time we had a formal regulating agency (governmental?) that allows only certain tags (metadata) to be used to represent certain sites? I do. Then we wouldn’t need to do so much of that virtual shoveling. I do know there has been a lot of publishing in the area of learning object repositories and the metadata classification systems needed to tag learning objects. I have also seen some good learning object repositories.
Homework has always been a tough sell, especially to certain kids, and it is harder to compete with games, YouTube, Facebook - not to mention those kids who take part in sports, music, drama, etc. There has been a lot written and many studies come out about homework lately. Alfie Kohn says we should not give it. Some schools have banned it. I think we do need to consider the value of it. Sometimes it is 'busy work', maybe homework can be turned on its head. I heard of one idea where the homework was to listen to/watch the 'lesson' or explanation as a podcast for homework, then do the problems, labs, interactive stuff in the classroom. Anyway - a bit of topic, but you did mention homework :-)
ReplyDeleteGarry: I dread the question that comes up at least once a year: Why are we learning this? When am I ever going to use this in real life? I have several standby answers, but in some cases I feel like we are paddling upstream. There is so much curriculum that is mandatory that so many students will not use, ever. I agree with you that it is our job as teachers to work with these distractions, go more with the flow. Sometimes I just don't see how to work it both ways. Maybe I need more time to develop as a teacher, gather more experience, and talk with more people in the larger community (not a lot of opportunities at my school).
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite profs ever told us newbies to take our time, it won't happen over night. He reminded us that he was at it over 30 years and he still changed things. It just feels like it is coming at us so fast some times I can't even try out one new thing!
Any type of government regulatory body makes me a little nervous. As soon as you start introducing regulations exceptions become difficult to incorporate. It would be nice to be able to filter some of the useless stuff out though.
Mike: I do try and limit the amount of homework, and in fact have been slowly trying to turn the model around. I was just getting students to go and read the book, it never really occurred to me to have them use technology to do the basics. Yet whenever there is a topic that I am unsure of, the first thing I do is jump online and find several sources to figure it out.
Some parents still do care. I have had several comments about the lack of homework in my class compared to others from parents. When I explain that we do much of the work in class, many seem to think that more could be done. I just don't see the sense in loading them up every night when I can get them through the material in class.