Ruby’s Blog

I just read a posting from The Fischbowl entitled “Is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher?” It talks about a set of proposed standards for teachers and it basically implies that it is not acceptable for teachers to be technologically illiterate. All teachers should have a basic level of technological literacy, otherwise they should not be teaching.

While, I don’t think this is a factor for leaving the profession, I do believe that teachers today should at least have some basic level of technological literacy so that they can remain a step ahead of their students. Personally, I don’t feel that I myself am so great technologically but I learn as I go and these blogs have been great in helping me get there!

I just read an article on a speech given by Lee Rainie entitled “Life online: Teens and technology and the world to come”. Rainie talks about 8 realities that shape the world of young people and that will affect them when they finish school. These are:

1.      Millennials (People born from 1982-2000) are a distinct age cohort, according to many measures of generational behaviour and attitude

2.      Millennials are immersed in a world of media and gadgets

3.      Their technology is mobile

4.      The internet plays a special role in their world

5.      They are multi-taskers

6.      Millennials are often unaware of and indifferent to the consequences of their use of technology

7.      Their (our) technology will change rapidly in the next decade

8.      The way they approach learning and research tasks will be shaped by their new techno-world

What does this mean for us as teachers?

Well it seems that Millennials will be much more self –directed and less dependent on top-down instruction. We need to be able to alter our teaching strategies to allow these students to be able to explore their own insights and intelligences. We can most certainly guide them and shape their path or multiple paths, but I think they need to have a number of choices when it comes to their learning methods.

Image: ‘I am Here for the Learning Revolution‘
www.flickr.com/photos/31442459@N00/2516648940

After reading “Constructionism vs. Instructionism” by Seymour Papert, I found myself agreeing with the idea that students will be more equipped for the real world if we incorporate technology into our teaching practices in the classroom.

Papert (1980) defined constructionism as giving children good things to do so that they can learn by doing much better than they could before. He also defined instructionism as the theory that states, “to get better education, we must improve instruction. And if we’re going to use computers, we’ll make the computers do the instruction”.

I don’t believe that technology should be the main and only tool used in teaching practices but I do think that because of the rapid technological changes in the real world, students do need to be educated in schools, on the use and benefits of different types of technology.

In the KLA of HSIE, especially in subjects like Business studies and Commerce, constructionism can be put into practice. I think this can be very beneficial as it allows students, exposure to the real world and a practical side of things, rather than just theoretical.

I just read an article by Jamie McKenzie entitled “Stuffing technology into the curriculum” which addresses the question of “are we using technology for the sake of technology, or is this the best teaching method for our students?”

Personally I think technology is being pushed onto schools and onto teachers and while it can be a fantastic learning tool, it is not always appropriate.

I don’t believe that effective learning depends on technology and I agree with what is said in the article, that teachers should choose their teaching tools after they have actually set clear goals and strategies for the lesson, not the other way around.     

In response to part of the ABC, 7:30 Report that I watched, from May 2007, I think that while technology is not to blame for teen suicide, it definitely provides a medium for them to go about it. The report is about the double suicide of 2 girls in Victoria, who posted their own death notices on MySpace the day before they disappeared.

I think the main issue here is the fact that an increase in technology is causing teens to become more and more detached from the outside world. This in turn is making them feel alienated and alone and this is a huge contributor to the rising rate of suicide amongst Australian teens. These people turn to ‘faceless’ friends who they find online and who bare such a great influence on them.

The report also talks about the rise in “emo” culture which is a culture of dark thoughts and self harm. There are numerous websites, such as vampire websites that promote self harm.

I think to myself, while this is such a terrible occurance and so are the many others that I’m certain are occuring around the world, what can we do to stop this?

Can we monitor the use of technology? I believe the answer is no, we cannot. We need to be monitoring our children and their actions. We need to know our children well enough to be able to read the signs and as the report mentions, if they’re not eating, sleeping, doing as well as usual at school, we need to get to the bottom of the problem!