Dr. Roberts
I found Dr. Robert’s presentation fascinating and
entertaining. It was interesting to see
the depth of his research and how it can be so easily outdated because of the
constant innovations in the field of technology. I also can imagine how difficult it would be
to do his job. Not only are students
provided access to television and the internet, advances now allow students
access to these forms of technology on iPhone, iPods, and iPads that students
can carry around in their pockets.
Therefore, I feel it would be difficult, as Dr. Roberts mentioned, to
get an accurate account of how often technology is used by students.
According to Dr. Roberts, students spend about sixteen hours
engaged in technology per day. As an
educator, it forces me to think about providing further access to students in
the classroom. Students do not get the
personal interactions when using technology, and it is important to provide
opportunities for those interactions in an academic setting. Without these interactions, students are
losing interpersonal skills that they will need in a job setting. Yet, as an educator you must also think about
engaging students, and if students are interested in accessing content through
technology then it may be wise to utilize that resource. It is a difficult decision, and one that I
think needs to be taken into consideration carefully by the teacher. I feel that a balance of both technology and
interpersonal interactions can teach valuable skills while engaging students in
content.
Online Courses
Online courses were newly implemented in my school last year
in hopes of allowing the opportunity for credit recovery for failing
students. I think that online classes
can be valuable when all aspects are taken into considerations. I do not think it is wise to offer online
courses for low performing students who have previously failed a course. As the article mentioned, many of these
students simply look up the answers on the internet and are not learning the
material they failed to learn the first time.
These students need to be in intensive courses with teachers who are
able to provide extra attention to explaining skills and content that was not
learned in the original course. In
situations like these, students are being done a disservice because they are
receiving credits to move forward but they are not learning what is needed to
succeed in future courses.
Online classes can be successful when students have the
independent skills and knowledge to teach themselves. Many college level students or advanced high
school students may find the independent work and autonomy of an online course
challenging. Students may need to do
research to teach themselves skills or content and they may find that the
knowledge they acquire is learned rather than memorized.
The emphasis being placed on online courses is also
worrisome as an educator. Although
online courses are cheaper, valuable interactions are being lost between
teachers and students. Students learn
very differently, and teachers can recognize these different learning types and
tailor lessons to their unique group of students. Online courses offer one way to relay
information, and many students may be left behind confused and still lacking
the information.
Technology Resources for Teachers
1.
www.prezi.com
provides a more interactive means for relaying content. I often use PowerPoints to deliver a new
literary device or term to students.
This website offers an animated way to present information that tends to
captivate students attention.
2.
www.rubistar.com is a website that offers
teachers the opportunity to create their own rubrics. It also offers guidelines and formatting for
popular assignments that a teacher may be creating a rubric for. I often use this website for creating rubrics
for large projects or grading essays.
3.
DropBox provides an easy way for students and
teachers to share documents. I have
found this to be more helpful when it comes to sharing documents with other
teachers. Teachers can gain access and
share worksheets, lesson plans, etc.
4.
Finally, as an English teacher I allow my
students to use easybib.com. This website allows an accessible way for students
to create correct citations for various types of resources. Students are often turned off by the feat of
citing sources and this website subsides many of those fears by taking students
step by step through the citation process.
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