Vision of Today's Students

Review fellow students blogs and synthesize the positions. Discuss whether you agree/disagree with the position, and how this might shape your future classroom.

Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=related

Blog posts read:
http://jjachym2.blogspot.com/ (Jacqueline)
http://stephmatook.blogspot.com/ (Steph)
http://rsister2.blogspot.com/ (Rachel)


After reading these blogs, I agree with all three of these girls. The teacher has to be the agent of change within the classroom and the learning environment. Technology is the future. As future teachers, we need to embrace and understand these advances in technology instead of fearing them. We are responsible for incorporating technologies into the classroom to aid in each student's understanding of the topic at hand. Jacqueline made a very interesting point in her blog. She stated that "The students of today are digital learners." This is something new. We have learned all about Gardner's Multiple Intelligences: verbal, visual, musical, kinesthetic etc. I have never heard that a student is a digital learner. This, however, is the direction that education is going. Everything is becoming interactive. Students in the early grades are going on the internet, watching lots of television, and listening to music. They know just as much, if not more, about technology than their teachers. This is scary.

We as teachers owe it to our students to use as much up to date technology as possible and to be fully educated in how to use it. We need to keep our students interest and engage them in our lessons as opposed to using rote learning methods. It is very important that students understand WHY they are learning what they are learning as opposed to just spitting back the information they have memorized. Technology is a great way for students to interact with the material, manipulate graphs, and absorb a greater understanding than just the "this is the way it is."

This ties into a major point in one of the videos. As Steph mentions, a little boy held up the camera and asked how the topic he was learning was going to help him in his future. I find this of vital importance as well, because I asked myself that question numerous times throughout my years in school (sometimes I still do!). Showing your students how the material relates to them and why it is important in the future will give them the understanding needed to carry forward. I know that if I am told that something will be useful for a specific reason in the future, I will take more time to understand it, and not just memorize it, because it applies to me. A good teacher will do her best to make every lesson apply to every student. Technology can help the teacher to engage the students to want to learn the lesson as well.