1. write your own: to show students how science, technology, and society all rely on each other to advance. STEM
2. to increase student motivation and engagement in the classroom
3. to promote creativity and self-expression
4. to support the development of students' content knowledge
5. to modernize the curriculum and make it more relevant to students
Quotes from the chapter:
"It all starts from a place of passion."
Digital and media literacy comes from a place of passion for me. For me, it is the perfect tool to bring out the best in every student, giving them the opportunity create and express themselves in anyway they see fit. This weekend I attended the WVSTA conference at Glade Springs resort and discovered something that integrates the science that I love and the technology I can't get enough of; I am talking about the First Lego League programs. After attending the sessions with Jaime Ford and Todd Ensign, they got me passionate about First. What the program does for students has me excited for the future and what this program can be for students. I hope to work with this program in the future.
"A deep commitment to student voice is at the heart of digital and media literacy."
Student voice is what drives digital and media literacy because it is their voice that gives it life. Their creativity brings out the best in digital and media literacy; projects that can shock and aww the audience in the best ways.
"When it comes to cell phones, educators in some schools are discovering that policies based on respect and courtesy have a bigger positive impact than those based on control and prohibition."
It may seem odd to some educators, but students often use their phones in class to gain a better understanding of what is being lectured. Yes, sometimes they are texting or goofing off, but this is not usually the case; unless they have nothing to do and are not being engaged by the educator. When students look things up for themselves they typically remember the information because they had to go out of their way to understand it. Cell phones have become a great tool in the classroom and let students have all the information of a library at their finger tips. There are also some great educational apps that you can have to students download and use in the classroom. This can also save the educator some money and time.
Sean, i totally agree with your thoughts on this: "A deep commitment to student voice is at the heart of digital and media literacy."
ReplyDeleteStudent voice is what drives digital and media literacy because it is their voice that gives it life. Their creativity brings out the best in digital and media literacy; projects that can shock and aww the audience in the best ways.
I hope to come up with creative & relevant projects for my future students to become engaged in and find useful. I think we try to hard to pigeon-hole students into a strict curriculum and maybe, just maybe, if they had a creative outlet, they could flourish and not feel so displaced and so bored.
I fell in love with your first Motivation for Digital Technology. As a STEM educator I could not have said it better, "To show students how science, technology, and society all rely on each other to advance." Fantastic quote! Because that is exactly it. I think what is disheartening for me currently is watching the cutbacks that are affecting the initiative that were originally behind STEM education that have occurred over the year. I remember sitting in the NASA Robotics Alliance meeting with 10 other facilities and watching someone run into the video conference and with excitement yell, "STEM outreach has been cutback but no need to worry they aren't cutting robotics alliance or GLOBE!" I looked around my isolated room and freaked. I'm not just robotics alliance. I love GLOBE and Robotics Alliance. I'm a huge proponent but STEM education is much larger than both. After all, it is a very large umbrella term for various fields our students can pursue and I want to show them as many as possible from fields that can be pursued on 2 year degrees to 4 year and beyond.
ReplyDeleteSecond I'm really glad you enjoyed me and Todd's presentation on FIRST robotics. It is a passion and not just a job for me. FIRST is growing fast in WV and if I can be part of the growth, it is definitely an honor. It is a good, well rounded STEM competition that really focuses on different aspects of potential STEM careers from design, to software, to research, to core values, etc…
I loved that you wrote your own! I think you were the only one of us to do so (or at least that I recognized or noticed).
ReplyDeleteI mentioned in my blog post that I’ve used my cell phone in class to look up information that I couldn’t recall so I was pleased to see that as an educator, you recognized that students did this. It brought to mind a moment as an undergrad and a professor was very strict about cell phone usage in his class. If he saw you with it, he’d call you out on it. One day, after telling one student to put away her phone, he catches another student with his phone out. The student explained he used it to take his notes and the professor’s face clearly indicated this was a new concept for him. He relented and allowed him to continue.
As I consider it more, I advocate a courtesy policy rather than prohibition, believing it would serve schools better. However, I am unclear in how well incorporating cell phones in the classroom would work. I recognize that there are a lot of great apps out there; I had a couple history related apps downloaded that I would use to pull up a date or name that I was unclear of while in class or studying on my own. However, not all students have cell phones or the capability to download the apps. I really like the idea of incorporating the apps into the classroom though; perhaps with school owned tablets/iPads instead.
In our top five motivations, we share 3. I’d say we are both young teachers on the right path of positively impacting the future generations to come.
ReplyDeleteI liked all the quotes you selected. I agree that teachers need to be passionate and deeply advocate for their students individual voice and independence. The cell phone policies can be tricky, but I agree that cell phones are excellent tools at student’s disposals and that there are positive ways we could reinforce their inclusion in our classrooms. I am lucky to have the budget this year to buy a department set of ipads for my classroom, which will be helpful with research and informational expansion while integrating technology daily. Cell phones are familiar to students and I will have 14 devices, so that won’t cover all students, so they will have to pair up in my larger classes or we will supplement ones with cell phones if needed. At my school there is a strict policy on cell phone use, but it can be flexible in a class-by-class basis. I am ART, so I have “jammin’ Fridays” when students can bring in their devices with earphones and jam to their music while they work on their projects. I know this isn’t necessary helping my instruction information, but it allows them a reward and some freedom, which they appreciate. I am very clear that there are limitations. If I see them snapping pictures or on social media, then it gets shut down quickly. I am working on how I will use their technologies, but it will depend how the ipad implementation goes. I’m excited though and I think all things are a step forward with integrating devices into the classroom.
Fingers crossed and thanks for your contribution, you are very dedicated and caring and that shows through in your class projects. Well done and keep it up Sean! Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Your point on cell phones definitely hit a note with me. It all goes back to the idea that we send two opposing messages at times: we want students to be responsible and independent, while at the same time we provide strong restrictions to student autonomy and behavior. I started taking a netbook to class in college because my handwriting is terrible and I wanted legible notes; what I found was the I would look up topics being covered during lectures to learn more, and those of some of the subjects that I remember the most about to this day. I think you are 100% correct that students need to ability to further their understanding of a topic on they own, be it with a cell phone, tablet, or computer, though there likely has to be some sort of restriction placed on them. Nothing bothers me more than giving a presentation and seeing every person in the room with their faces down on their cell phones. There is a fine line between promoting learning and creating distraction. I don't have the answers there!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm happy to hear of your recent conference and the inspiration that you found there. I hope that you maintain that motivation as you continue to educate!
We both chose the same quote about cell phone policy. I totally agree that students are finding uses for their phones that we might not exactly understand. However, we need to respect them as learners and put policy into place that still gives them the freedom to choose how they want to use technology to enhance their learning. I've spent time working in an environment that favored control and prohibition when it came to cell phones, and that only bred sneakiness and deception among the students and adults in charge. Taking things away from kids often motivates them to try to have those things anyway.
ReplyDelete