Ruby’s Blog

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.

In response to Tania’s posting about teens and technology, I agree with the fact that while students aren’t afraid to have a go when it comes to technology and computers, they are very afraid to participate in class discussions for fear of being wrong. That makes me wonder if we are placing emphasis where it is needed? Maybe we shouldn’t be pushing so much technology onto students before we can teach them to be confident and think for themselves.

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!

I just read this article, “Digital Natives In The Classroom” by Michael Culliganthat talks about generation X being ‘digital natives’. It talks about technology being a driving force in the way students think and learn. They use technolgy in almost every aspect of their lives. The article also mentions ’digital immigrants’ that do not understand technolgy and therefore fear it. Teachers today need to familiarise themselves with the learning styles of their students and develop strategies that relate to them.

http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm

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I just read this article “The New Literacy” by Sara Armstrong and David Warlick, and I think it’s absolutely crucial that we, as teachers tailor our teaching strategies around this ‘new literacy’. Most of the students in our classrooms are from the information age and as the article mentions “the best thing we can teach them is how to teach themselves”. We need to do this by preparing them for the future. By future, I mean the one that requires them to utilise technology for learning, more so than the traditional, text books, newspapers, etc.

The article talks about educating our students in a range of skills which are more than just finding and understanding information. Due to the fact that students today have access to such a vast amount of information, they need to learn to filter that information and pull out what is relevant to them and their learning. They also need to be familiar with all types of media and technology and be able to effectively express their ideas through a range of mediums. Overall I think this article is a great wake up call for teachers today if they want to create a classroom environment that promotes and nurtures meaningful learning among students.    

http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=47102021

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