I am increasingly intrigued by the idea that one of the many roles we have as educators is to emerge students in the variety of media that they will undoubtedly be using all of their lives. This responsibility should assume that we are also using these new media in our lives, both professionally and personally. I have been slow to embrace much of this technology for many reasons, such as motivation, need, as well as the time that I devote to this learning.
Among the other scary responsibilities that I have as an educator of young people is that of giving them adult guidance in how to navigate and communicate in the multi-media world. ...today's kids are more connected to other people on a second-by-second basis than they have been at any other time in our history. (W.Kist, 2010) Obviously, parents and teachers cannot monitor every moment and action of students. But why wouldn't we want to pattern our classrooms and the media we use in them after the world that students live in? If we do not, we miss out on the opportunity to model appropriate and informed use of these media. I am not as learned as most of my students in the use of technology for learning and fun, but I would be kidding myself if I believed that all children are just "hard-wired" to work with electronic media. This would be a misconception that falsely assumes that my students are going to learn how to navigate their world on their own.
This is a big issue for us-- protection or education? It seems like there should be a balance, but many districts seem to want to over protect instead of allowing students a chance to learn and explore multi-media genres.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's interesting that we not lose focus of all the literacies students need to read. While they are good at interacting with technology, can they give a painting meaning? Can they critically discuss the mood of a movie?
I don't remember math being presented in a very interesting way when I was growing up. It also wasn't an easy subject for me. I don't remember a lot of story problems back then. Basically, you did equations. I think my math teachers sometimes wrongly assumed I was challenging them (and the material) when I would ask, "When would someone use this?" I genuinely needed to know whether this was something a carpenter would use, something a physicist would use, etc. For me, it helped put math in a context. I think math is taught much differently today. Still, with all the online resources, it would be cool to show kids video at the start of a new unit, for instance, of people in various fields actually using the types of things they're learning. It would take it out of the abstract for those kids who are like I was.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments! These are valid points. I do agree that we need to give students opportunities to analyze a variety of genres and mediums. Maybe the web gives us more opportunities to expose students to these different genres.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to math instruction, we are being more contextual in the way content is being presented. The bottom line is that not all of the content standards I am expected to teach do have "real world" applications! Much of it is foundational knowledge for learning even more math! I am fairly straight forward about this with my students. Because I teach sixth grade and most of my students are not set on the path their life will take, I can usually provide some context for what I am expecting them to know and do.