New Technologies Link Ancient Cultures

Ellis, Ken. "New Technologies Link Ancient Cultures." Edutopia. N.p., 6 June 2002. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. <http://www.edutopia.org/new-technologies-link-ancient-cultures>.

Elementary students at that Choctaw Tribal School in Mississippi interview tribal elders about tribal culture and customs and post the interview, pictures and other information on a website called the First People’s Project.  Many indigenous groups around the world also post information on this site, part of the International Education and Research Network (iEARN), which began in Australia.  The goal of the project is to collect information on indigenous groups throughout the world that may not be found in textbooks, and create of source of international multicultural source of information on indigenous people.  Armed with casino money, the Mississippi Choctaw tribe have been large financial contributors to this project, and the spin-off “Humanitarian Project” which has paid for technologies in the classroom as well as “a school in Thailand”. “I don't want kids to stop playing stickball or forget about traditional dancing and cooking, or speaking their own language," says athletic instructor Jason Bell. "I hope we can influence these kids that we need to keep our culture alive for the next generation."

The goals and purpose of the project seem quite noble.  A tool like this seems like a good one and a good source for students researching indigenous cultures.  However I have certain questions how this is going to preserve Choctaw or another natives group’s culture that much longer.  Certainly school children interviewed elders for class memory projects before the advent of the Internet.  The Internet simply allows for a new way of sharing that information, which is very good.  The website is in English and Spanish.  My question is does this really inspire students to keep their cultures alive or are they simply co-opting it into the technology of day, technologies that were devised outside of their culture, by values that may or may not be their tribal cultures.  Part of me is feels like this is like saying the horse tribes of the midwest now have pickup trucks so that are able to get more things done more efficiently and are therefore able to preserve their culture that much better.  It all seems like a false analogy, but the project seems worthy nonetheless, just because of the expansive audience that the Internet can provide.

Technology Reshapes America’s Classrooms

Szep, J. (2008, July 7) Technology Reshapes America’s Classrooms

                Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2547885520080707

            In this news article from Reuters, a class in Boston is highlighted as a model for a new kind of school—a school with laptops instead of books.  A student interviewed said that she enjoyed the new school and that it was “comfortable” and like “playing a game.”  The article says that this is the wave of the future.  It went on to state that this is not only the direction of secondary education but higher education as well.  The article was generally positive about these developments, concluding that teachers can work more one on one with their virtual students, while avoiding “one size fits all” lesson planning.

            I have taken about 5 online classes for college.  I believe that the more challenging the subject matter, the less useful online classes are.  When you have a student who is sitting unsupervised at a computer with Google, there is a real temptation to simply search for the answer.  No real evidence of student understanding is possible with this sort of arrangement.  I understand the benefits of online classes and have used them myself, but I don’t feel that this is a useful tool for real learning.  A similar school to the one profiled in this article was highlighted in the PBS Frontline “Digtial Nation”. They too experienced higher student achievement when the laptop programs were introduced, but as the technology became more common, old bad habits in the students began to reemerge, such as using the computers for chatting with friend.  The technology became more of a distraction then a benefit.

Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools

Walker, L., (2009, April 16). Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/17340

This article points out why Twitter should be used in the class room.  The author states that it is “keeping up with the times, allows teachers and students to follow events that are local or global, and allows teachers to keep in touch with other teachers who maybe resources that are fuller and ‘more useful than an ordinary google search’”.  The author also says that learning how to express yourself in “less than 140 characters is a great discipline to develop”, and that it is easy to use. In fact the hardest part about Twitter is getting it unblocked in your school’s computer.

While the article is cute, I didn’t find it very convincing. I don’t see why Twitter needs to be in our classrooms.  Like much of social media I find it mainly a distraction, or a “time suck”, and we don’t need any more of these in our classes.  Teachers who want to use Twitter as a resource to workshop with other educators can simply use it on their home computers.  I am not convinced that it is useful for teachers to correspond to their students through social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, as this may be awkward for students who feel that their teachers are “lurking” or “spying” on them.  I can understand and see the usefulness of blogs or a class website, or a private social media site for a class in education.  However I remain unsure about social media, especially large public sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The Best Social Studies Websites.

Ferlazzo, L. (2008, August 1). The Best Social Studies Websites. Classroom Tech Learning. Retrieved December 8, 2010, from http://www.techlearning.com/article/14290

            This is a list of what Mr. Ferlazzo considers the best Social Studies websites.  Two of the 19 sites listed are pay sites.  Two others are sites in which students can track their carbon footprint to see how transportation or other social activities affect their footprints.  There are two that are geography and map quizzes, and others that use ZIP codes or places on the map to retrieve demographic information about certain neighborhoods.  The top rated site was HippoCampus.org, which is from a textbook publisher that covers numerous subjects, even U.S. History.  The site offered lessons and PowerPoint presentation for a number topics in its history text.
            This was a useful article and a good resource for social studies teachers to bring outside sources of information into the class.  Looking through the HippoCampus.org website I notice that it offered a number of presentations on lesson topics.  This could be useful for teachers looking to get additional resources outside of their textbooks.  Another site that was mentioned was hotpads.com. This site was designed for real estate buyers and sellers to research available rentals or real estate purchases, but had interesting filters to find median ages and incomes of areas.  Teachers and students could use this site to research information about areas in which events took place, taking a look at median incomes, rents and ages of certain areas to help students get a fuller picture of why certain things happen in certain places.  I look forward to researching the other sites mentioned in this article.

A School That's Too High on Gizmos.

Welsh, P. (2008, February 10). A School That's Too High on Gizmos. Washington Post . Retrieved December 9, 2010, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020803271.html
This article from the Technology section of the Washington Post is about a school in Alexandria, Virginia that is brand new, and has almost every technological gizmo available.   Instead of being happy many of the teachers are depressed and feel that they are not really reaching their students because they are forced to use the technology.  Some say that they don’t have any connection with their administrators since the main form of communication is email rather than face to face conversations.  A math teacher complained that he believes the administrators think that a computer that will just spit out the answer will make math easier, but that learning math is actually hard work, and needs to be worked out piece by piece.  Social Studies teachers complain that students think that class is just guessing right and that writing has deteriorated as students don’t put real work into their writing, just “one draft, spell-check, send and pray.”
This article confirms some of my own prejudices about technology in the classroom.  It is a tool, not a magic wand.  Students like everybody else respond more strongly to actual human interaction, looking at people in the eye and not hiding behind a screen and keyboard.  We are living in a profoundly technological age, and we are still learning how to use the technologies efficiently.  Yet a certain “technolust” as the one mentioned in this article remains.  We as educators need to note that making things easier for our students may in fact being doing them a disservice, because it is often the process at arriving at the right answer, and not the answer itself where the real learning lies.

Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students

 
Marcinek, A. (2010, November 21). Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students | Edutopia. Edutopia. Retrieved December 9, 2010, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/reengaging-students-andrew-marcinek
            In this blog posting, an English teacher talks about using a wiki as a collaborative writing tool that is open, transparent, and fun.  He states that most of his students have machines in their pockets that can access the world outside of their classroom.  He feels that maybe that is a place where he can take his class, since that is a place many of his students want to be since they are spying at handheld devices underneath their desks.  He states that with the collaborative wiki, students are learning that mistakes are not just marked wrong, but as opportunities for growth and steps in learning.  He states that a wiki allows his students to write for more than just an audience of one (him) but for the whole world, and ask them “is this any good?”  He writes that this process prevent coasting and just writing for a grade but actually promoting the process of writing.
            I thought that Mr. Marcinek was onto something with this blog post.  He understands that some students will just go through the motions and write for a grade, and really miss what they should be learning--the process of how to write.  Mr. Marcinek’s ideas seemed to be genuine and would really inspire student participation.  I also believe that he is correct in assuming that students really do want to do work online, and in a participatory and contributory fashion.  This is an environment that many students are very comfortable in.  The teacher should really ask his students how they would like to do things.  Some may not be comfortable processing their writing online.  Either way the project should be presented to their students in a fun way.  I agree that the students shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes and embracing mistakes as opportunities for learning, rather than turning them in and getting them marked wrong, and handed back.  This seems like a very good strategies for not only English construction, but writing for history as well.