I also wanted to comment on the technology guide webpage. I have spent way to much time looking at this website. I have found some really interesting software, I didn't even know was out there, and found some great tutorials. I can't wait to share this with my colleagues at school during their inservice.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Week Three Readings (for the late folks)
The reading that stuck out most in my mind for this week was the article about the Gen Y class. Being as young as I am I feel that this study could have been done with me. Every comment that the Gen Yer's made like "I like to experiment, and see what happens" to "look at what this mistake turned out to be" rang so true to me. I feel that along with the Gen Yer's that I grew up with technology and feel very comfortable with it. As far as using technology and asking for student assistance, I still feel a little uncomfortable, at times, asking for student assistance. I know as a young teacher I am not to far in age from my students at this point and sometimes find it daunting, especially with high school students, to get appropriate responses from students when I ask questions let alone ask for technology help. I think that as I grow older the technologies I grew up with have started to and will continue to change, and then I will need to rely more on my students.
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6 comments:
Week 3 Blog:
As I was reading the article about the Gen Y generation, I couldn't help but think that this experience would not only increase the technology skills of the graduate students involved, but would also make these future teachers more open to constructivist ideas in their own classroom. It would have been interesting to hear how the graduate students ideas about presenting instruction were changed as a result of this experience.
As I was reading the Virtual Learning article, my thoughts went to my own children. Most students would be extremely excited about using video games in education. My children never really got interested in video gaming and often feel at a loss when they are at a friend's house where everyone is playing video games. While these types of technologies have a great potential for reaching students, we have to remember that, just like with any other type of learning activity, it's not going to be for every student. Some students will embrace it, but other students will feel threatened by it.
As I was reading the article about virtual learning I thought to myself that this sounds like a good idea on the surface but there also seems like there could be lots of drawbacks to using video games to instruct. One of my thoughts is 2 of my 3 boys loves video games but one of my sons does not get as involved in gaming so he would not be as interested in learning through gaming. Also who would be responsible in creating the games. As we have had already experianced creating small VB and Flash programs is really time consuming. Educators will not have time to create quality educational software for their classrooms. Of course educators always have the option of buying educational games from software companies but some software can be really expensive.
Virtual Learning,
I think integrating learning standards into games is excellent. I would buy such games for my children (I guess I better do a better job researching them in order to find them). If the educational games had the budget that some of the high profile 1st person shooter games have then they might have more impact. I think this type of integration has no where to go but up. I think we will see an explosion of these types of games in the near future as more students come out of college with game art degrees....couple them with sound educational strategies...sounds like money...and a lot of engaged students.
I really amazing to see how can adults learn from children regards technology. I think, they have more benefit from it than we do, because they are growing up with it and they don't feel afraid to use any kind of technology. And they compare among each other who can have the newest technology and who can beat others first with the new technology... So they are actually more motivated and more excited to use it.
Virtual learning is my passion and liked the article very much. It is hard to keep up with technology I can admit that with a background in Computer Science and Software Engineering. The best thing to do is to find one technology and be good at it so that even when students are helping you have something to say instead of just watching. Depending on the students some students will engage their teacher in a more professional way. Students pick up technology quicker than teachers of course because this is something they discuss with peers and work on it when they get home. Even though the article paint a glossy picture about virtual learning but there are drawbacks especially to those students coming from less fortunate backgrounds. That is why school should provide a level playing ground and help students incorporate games in their educational experience. Even though it is time consuming to design and develop games but there is a way out people are creating things online and some of the activities are free. The only thing to do is research those activities for classroom. Interactive activities give students FLOW. Students are having fun while learning.
Week 3
I read the Virtual Learning PDF. It talked about how students will just play video games. Older people are saying that they are just playing video games. It talked about how they are learning from the games. Students when they get home are ready to devour new information and concepts through the virtual environments. Its better than just mastering memorization. This is very true from my time in school and what I have been seeing in my classrooms. It also said a few years ago the only way to learn was to listen to the teacher but now students can look online to find the latest news.
Tom
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