"In the 1980s, Garner, Gillingham, and White (1989) coined the term seductive details to describe aspects of texts that were likely to interfere with students; abilities to attend to the most important parts of the text they read" (Schugar, Smith, Schugar 620).
The reoccurring theme in articles discussing new educational technology is primarily devoted to emphasizing the benefits they offer and generally ignores the hinderances they sometimes present to the learning process. Honestly, I often feel frustrated when all I read are the amazing things teachers are able to do when they incorporate a specific type of technology into their class and then when I try the same thing, students are not as motivated as the students in the example read. For instance, a few years ago, I heard only positive outcomes about classrooms that used "virtual field trips" to foster learning. But, when I created my own virtual field trip for students to learn about Portuguese history, I constantly had to monitor them to make sure they weren't playing virtual soccer on the internet instead.
This article is realistic in addressing the concerns of using e-books and warns teachers against using them as a replacement for their instruction. Teachers must still be involved by educating students about the appropriate way to use e-books in order to enhance comprehension, not diminish it. The guidelines for using them should be clearly identified prior to handing over the electronic books for independent use. Perhaps I would have experienced more positive results, if I would have taken time to explicitly discuss my expectations for the virtual field trip activity. Unfortunately, my students might have needed to experience specific consequences when they strayed from the education web sites. The mistake I made was to assume that my students would automatically know what the appropriate behavior was for using new technology.
This article is realistic in addressing the concerns of using e-books and warns teachers against using them as a replacement for their instruction. Teachers must still be involved by educating students about the appropriate way to use e-books in order to enhance comprehension, not diminish it. The guidelines for using them should be clearly identified prior to handing over the electronic books for independent use. Perhaps I would have experienced more positive results, if I would have taken time to explicitly discuss my expectations for the virtual field trip activity. Unfortunately, my students might have needed to experience specific consequences when they strayed from the education web sites. The mistake I made was to assume that my students would automatically know what the appropriate behavior was for using new technology.
I agree with our teaching adapting to the new technology. I never really understood that I needed to change the way I taught reading when using these types of literacy programs. It is now clear why this is so important!
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your frustrations about not having the same success as others with certain technologies. I wish that, in addition to the magical outcomes they are promoting, educators also mention the roadblocks they hit along the way. Knowing where others struggled sometimes makes it easier for me to figure out what needs to be changed in order to make the technology work for my students. It is often easy to make something look good on paper, but I think more benefit comes from knowing the "whole story".
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you and how many of the articles that we read only focus on the positive benefits for the new idea suggested. I think our students are into such a routine as to what school is supposed to be. I think they are just as scared as us when trying to implement new ideas into the classroom. I think they also have anxiety about making sure that everything is always correct and being afraid to make mistakes. Try an activity like the 3-2-1 we did on the first day of class. I think if we spend time creating a community of learners who are comfortable with each other like we did in our workshop, they may be open to new ideas. We also need to show them how excited we are about the new idea. Our students feed off our energy levels and if we can show them how excited we are, maybe they will be too!
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