Marc Prensky states that "Technology affects how students live and communicate and when, where, and how they learn." (Solomon & Schrum,2007 p.27) As a teacher coming back into the classroom, I need to learn new ways to "get their attention" and have new innovative and interactive teaching styles for my 21st century students. Being a history teacher, I teach the importance in preserving history and it's importance to our future. After all, history is about relationships and how people interact with one another. Students of today society do the same thing but through different facets. I want to use technology to teach about "old stuff" and maybe through creating a classroom that allows my students to use their "instant messaging, e-mails, blogs, and social-networking Web sites" they can make history themselves.(Solomon & Schrum,2007 p.30)
I had another ah-ha moment and that's about students wanting to customize their surroundings. I've noticed this with my own children but never really put that much thought to it until reading Prensky's article. "How do we take this customization generation and apply that customization in the classroom?" (Solomon & Schrum,2007 p.33) Having this revelation about the 21st century learner is frighting for me. As individuals we like to have our own identity and have a unique personality that draws people in building relationships but what happens when students want to customize their teachers to their learning styles? It's something that I have to put deep thought into. How do I help my students customize my classroom to help them become more thoughtful and innovative learners.
This takes place in a classroom where the teacher is explaining a research paper. Two students are texting(I'm not that techie yet couldn't display this action) in class and shows that while the teacher is explaining the paper the students have: researched, written and submitted the paper, planned a party, bought supplies, and communicating with more than one person.
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Students and learning. Web 2.0: new tools, new schools (pp. 25-44). Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.
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ReplyDeleteI have learned that the Digital Natives can teach us just as much about technology as we have to offer them about our content area. Whenever I have a tech issue arise my first instinct is to ask a student. One of them knows the solution. This has given me insight to what they find of interest and I can hopefully find ways to incorporate that into my course. I had a thought regarding your second ah-ha moment about custimization. If we really want to provide them with a chance to flouish in their element I think that school must be more project based and not as rigid or structured. If a students wants to build a model of some historical event in MineCraft let them. We can utilize their talents to display knowledge. It is scary as a teacher giving up some of that control, I hope to allow more creativity to happen in my class this coming year.
Chris, thanks again for your suggestions. Sorry if this a duplicate but I responded back to you but I don't think it posted. I do agree that schools must be more project based but a lot of my teacher friends that are currently working have said that because of the increase in standardized testing and evaluations, teachers and students have little time for creativaty in the classroom. This saddens me a great deal and hopefully it will go in a different direction. I am taking this class because I want to be more creative as my new 21st century students. A note on the MineCraft, when my son began playing it I thought "what a cool game that he can create his own world" Never thought I can implement in my classroom. Thanks for eye opener.
DeleteI agree with Chris that a more project-based learning environment could be more helpful. Perhaps you could let the students break into groups or pairs, choose an aspect of the historical era you're working on that week, and have them present it to the class however they choose digitally (in my mind, I'm thinking like Drunk History, but without the drunk and vomiting part and with more factual accuracy : ) http://www.youtube.com/user/DrunkHistory/videos ). Then the rest of the class could discuss parallels between that aspect of the historical period and our current era (or any other time period you have discussed previously in the class).
ReplyDeleteHayley, sorry if this is a duplicate but I responded to your post to me but now I don't see it. Thanks again for your suggestions. I will review the Drunk History site and get back with you. It sounds like it will be something fun I can implement in my future classroom.
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ReplyDeleteI think that another way to keep students engaged in history is by researching interactive maps. There are different versions for battles, colony growth, explorers, etc. By simply moving away from staring at a sketch of a map in a textbook to looking at 3D maps with hyperlinks to videos, students will be more engaged and will have more customization power over their learning environment. You can also look up webquests that use primary documents for students to complete.
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