We had a panel of former MACers join us today, and I think the experience was extremely beneficial. It was really nice to be able to here how people who were in our shoes are performing in the professional work place today, and the experiences they shared were definitely appreciated and - at time - eye-opening.
Once such eye-opening experience was the consensus amongst the panel about the role of cell phones in today's classroom. Brace yourself: Kids use them a lot. One of our guest speakers who teaches at Country Day discussed how prevalent the use of cell phones for kids today when it comes to discovering rote information, going as far to say that students literally ignore academic text books when it comes to test preparation and instead opting to compile notes via websites like Wikipedia. On one hand, we can appreciate the ingenuity and willingness of our students to engage with technology and use it as a medium to find relevant academic information. On the other, this opens up a Pandora's Box of sorts where we have students utilizing this medium for academic and research purposes without really grasping what constitutes a valid or authentic source document. It is issues like this that I look forward to grappling with in the classroom every day. It is inevitable that a lot of students engage in such practices - heck, I was doing it with a much crappier cell phone 10 years ago. Helping raise students awareness about properly citing sources and finding reliable research is a solution I could perhaps consider. I don't know. Just throwing ideas against the wall and seeing if it sticks - sounds like a good idea in this case.
Of course, today was the last day of EDUC504 for the summer. I wanted to just thank Jeff and Kristin for their efforts this summer, and I'm greatly looking forward to continue working with them in the fall. My eyes have definitely been opened and there is a surplus of applications from our class and lessons that I intend to start using very soon for my own sake. Whether it was creating a blog, recording a podcast, or researching the organizational value of Skype, my expectations for the fall term are sky high and I'm looking forward to reconvening more than I expected. Cheers.
Hi there --
ReplyDeleteGlad that today left you with more questions. It will be fun to see how they blossom in the coming months. Should you wax nostalgic for MAC in August,
1. Here's a slide deck that Liz made for a presentation earlier this year, should the bug to learn more about cell phones hit you before Liz comes to class: http://www.slideshare.net/elizkeren/liz-kolb-mame
And
2. Here's a starter handout on Google search that might be useful to get your kids started thinking about search with the tool they prefer:
http://mashable.com/2011/11/24/google-search-infographic/
Of course, vacation also seems like a great idea! :)
Cool Story Hussein, that is your new rap alias.
ReplyDeleteI was also intrigued by the debate surrounding using cell phones in the class. I will not be using them in my classroom. I think that we use them so much that having an hour break is a necessary cellular vacation. We can use a computer or discuss possibilities before we go right ahead and look up information with our cell phones.
I think that a good curriculum will be something that students will not be able to be successful in by simply looking up facts from various websites. A good curriculum has flow and cause and effect present in the text. If the students see answers as disjointed facts from various places on the web, they will not be able to see the big picture. I want them to see the gargantuan picture.
The general consensus about cell phones between the previous MAC-ers in my classroom was interesting as well. I am looking forward to having our class on how to use cellphones in class, and seeing what the positives are that are presented to us, as well as being able to ask our mentor teachers (since we'll be student teaching by then), how they have found cell phones to either contribute or take away from the class and their learning process.
ReplyDelete