For this weeks blog I want to talk about the impact
technology has had on students as well as on the educational system. In our text Educational Psychology I read four articles that took a deep look
into technology in schools and what teachers need to be doing in order to
prepare themselves and their students to use and understand technology.
Schools are faced with a great deal
of problems associated with technology.
These problems can lead to some schools fearing technology and trying to
push the growing trend away.
Technology is all around us, pushing it away only hurts those
involved. Schools, teachers,
parents and students need to understand the importance of learning new
technologies and using them in the correct way. Everyone needs to work together to learn the new trends and
perfect the old ones.
In article 33, What Is Technology Education? A Review of the “Official Curriculum””,
Ryan A. Brown and Joshua W. Brown talk about technology education and the goals
of such programs in schools. “The
stated goal of technology education is to “produce students with a more
conceptual understanding for technology and its place in society, who can thus
grasp and evaluate new bits of technology that they might never have seen
before” (ITEA 2000, 4) (Brown & Brown, 2010, p. 170). Living in the 21st century
it is just as important that our students learn how to use technology as it is
for them to learn how to read.
Pretty soon schools will no longer have textbooks or libraries,
everything will be done online. If
we, as teachers, do not take the time to help our students learn different
types of technology we are only hurting their futures. Students will be left behind in the
working world because of their lack of knowledge of different technologies. 
The best way for students to
understand and learn different types of technology is practice. “Many of the
references to teaching technology education revolve around the idea of student
engagement” (Brown & Brown, 2010, p. 172). Let students try new technologies. We learn to read by reading, we learn to write by
writing. Students need to learn
technology by using technology.
Like I said before, our students
learn by doing and practicing. We
cannot expect them to understand a concept by just speaking about the concept
briefly. Article 34, “Plagiarism
in the Internet Age”, by Rebecca Moore Howard and Laura J. Davies explains the
importance of teaching our students how to avoid plagiarizing and not just
telling them what will happen to them if they do plagiarize.
“Teachers who wish to prevent
plagiarism should devote extensive instruction to the component tasks of
writing from sources” (Howard & Davies, 2009, p. 175). While in school I remember every year
getting the plagiarism speech and signing a piece of paper stating that I would
not plagiarize any of my work. That
was it; nothing else was done in order to help me not plagiarize my work. From the time I can remember writing my
first paper I have been afraid I am plagiarizing in my papers, not because I am
copying someone else work but because I am citing information in the wrong way. This is something our students
shouldn’t have to be worrying about.
They need proper education on how to use information, research topics
and cite online sources. The wealth
of information online should not be taken away from our students because
teachers are unwilling, or too lazy to teach a proper lesson on
plagiarism.
Article 35, Transforming Education with Technology: A Conversation with Karen Cator
by Marge Scherer, takes an inside look at an interview with the director of
the office of educational technology, Karen Cator. The article spoke about a bunch of different items like
schools Karen had been to that showed great use of technology, technology
access in schools and inequalities in the classroom. The items I found most interesting and important for
teachers, students and classrooms were student’s engagements in a
technology-rich school and teaching veteran teachers about new technologies.
“Engagement isn’t a focus on
entertainment; it’s about brain activity.
Is each student’s brain fully engaged?” (Scherer, 2011, p. 178). Students need to be interested in what
they are learning in order to be engaged in learning. “With technology, it’s easier to allow for student choice,
for meeting interests, for ensuring that assignments are at an appropriate
level, and for allowing prior experience and language support learning”
(Scherer, 2011, 178). While
substituting this year I was able to see a number of online technology based
activities teachers used in order to engage, assess and monitor their student’s
progress in class. One example in
particular was an 8th grade special education math class. These students had online homework,
quizzes and assignments that needed to be completed each week. The students loved this online
work. It was fun, interactive and
allowed them to play on the computer, which is what they seemed to enjoy
doing. This program also allowed
for the teacher, parents and students to access the work to see what the
students needed help on.
In order to engage students with new and exciting
technologies, teachers must be up to date with the latest and greatest
technologies. I believe keeping
all teachers on the same technology page is one of the hardest parts of using
technology in our schools. My dad
is a retired teacher of 35 years.
At the end of his career, which is about 4 years ago, Technology began
to creep more and more into his classroom and he was scared. He would come home everyday frustrated,
mad or upset by the new technology around him. He felt helpless and lost. Teachers need to work together to help each other learn
these new technologies. Teachers
are able to bring so many great resources to their fellow teachers if they take
the time to collaborate with one another.
The final article Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge
of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviors Regarding the Use of Social
Networking Sites by Stacey L. Kite, Robert Gable, and Lawrence Filippelli is
an article I think all educators should have to read in this day in age. “Cyberbullying threats of predation
through social networking sites and instant messaging programs have created
numerous problems for parents, school administrators, and law enforcement on a
national level (McKenna 2007, 60)” (Kite, Gable & Filippelli, 2010, p.
181).
The Internet is a scary place where
people can hide behind their computer screens and lash out at other or lure
others into inappropriate relationships.
The youth needs to be more aware of how to handle themselves online to
stay safe. Administration,
teachers and parents should be working together to fight to keep our youth safe
on the Internet.
”With the schoolyard bully both the
bully and the victim can read each other’s social cues, such as body posture,
speaking volume, facial expressions, and level of engagement. Cyberbullying removes all of the social
cues that are learned through face-to-face interactions, and the bully and
victim are left with caustic words being exchanged without any other
interaction” (Kite, Gable & Filippelli, 2010, p. 181). During my internship
I had a few students who were being bullied online and were bullying
online. This was a new issue to
me; five years ago when I was in high school students were only beginning to
start their obsession with the Internet.
It was scary to hear that my quietist students were bullying others
online daily. It made sense
though, these students were pushovers during the school day but were able to go
home and say their true feelings while in the safety of their own home. Before the teachers knew it we were
breaking up fights in the cafeteria and on the bus from what students where
saying about each other online.
The school did their best to get to the bottom of the issues but I know
and heard from talking in the hallway that the cyberbullying was still going
on.
As scary as cyberbullying was to
deal with the risk of Internet predators is even more of an issue students need
to be made aware of. “Only 40 percent of students indicted that they would tell
an adult if they were contacted on the instant messenger by someone they did
not know (item 20)” (Kite, Gable & Filippelli, 2010, p. 183). This number is far to low. Parents and teachers need to be aware of
what students are doing while online.
Clearly students aren’t going to tell anyone what they are doing online,
which means it is time to start asking!
There is nothing wrong with asking students about what is going on in
their online world. They need to
know the danger and intent of what some people are doing online. If we make students aware of the bad
people online and let them know they can come to us when something doesn’t seem
right we can begin to protect our youth from online danger.
Keeping our youth offline in fear
of what is out there is not the right way to treat the situation. The Internet and technology are amazing
parts of our world. Teachers,
parents and schools need to join together to teach our students the proper way
to use technology and the Internet so that they can grow up and make more
advancement to the ever-growing world of technology.
Reference
Brown, R.A & Brown, J.W. (2010) What Is Technology Education? A Review of the “Official Curriculum”, pages
49-53.
Cauley, K.M., & Pannozzo, G.M. (Eds.). (2013). Annual Editions: Educational Psychology
12/13 (27th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Howard, R.M. & Davies, L.J. (2009). Plagiarism in the Internet Age, pages 64-67.
Kite, S.L., Gable, R. & Filippelli, L. (2010). Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge
of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviors Regarding the Use of Social
Networking Sites, pages 158-163.
Scherer, M. (2011). Transforming
Education with Technology, pages 17-21.
Links
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
(Plagiarism)
http://www.technology-education.net/
(Technology Education)
http://712educators.about.com/cs/technology/a/integratetech.htm
(technology in the classroom)
http://712educators.about.com/cs/technology/a/integratetech.htm
(Technology in the classroom)
http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying (Cyberbullying)
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