One of the reasons why we call our kids the NEW GENERATION is that they were born into a world of technology. As Alec Couros mentions, “59% of kids under the age of 10 have a social networking account.” That’s a big number. Technology is everywhere; it’s shaping our society and people. We can almost do everything online; many people nowadays have an online life. We are not just join technologies; we participate. As an educator, there is a question that really needed to be concerned: Since kids can learn everything online, what’s the point of having teacher? But don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that we should quit what we were doing. Instead, we better think about how to use technology to educate our students. The first issue that I want to talk about is that don’t make assumptions. In other words, don’t assume our kids are all good at technologies. Last semester I was doing my pre-internship with a grade 6 class. One time my co-op teacher asked me to teach students how to do research online for their jot notes. My co-op teacher said that those grade 6s just copy down the few sentences under the title (e.g. Wikipedia) of the search results page, they do not click the title and go in there. My co-op teacher said that these students need more time to type and find the page I asked. Even I showed them exactly on the projector, some still get confused. That was my problem. I made assumption and I thought they know technologies. However, they may good at playing games, finding YouTube videos, but they do not do research often. So, we should teach students how to use technology appropriately. It is a big challenge for teachers nowadays when technology devices like phones, ipads, and laptops detract younger people. They are more interesting than learning. Children love playing; when they find there are more “fun” in video games, Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube, they would have more passion on them. It is hard for children and young people to pay more attention on things they do not interested. Unfortunately, learning could sometimes be very boring especially when the subject is too difficult. If students found learning is hard and boring, they are hardly want to learn. Even adults, we often distract by some other stuffs on the Internet when we were supposed to study or work. But we could use technology as a tool for education. We could ask students to play Math games or show video in class; just use technology to make learning more “fun”. What’s more, it is our responsibilities to teach students how to select information online. Kids are more easily to trust whatever online and never make any judge or even think about it. We should ask them to be aware of the information online and help them to be critical thinkers. For instance, we could suggest students to view more websites when they search something rather than just take the idea from one single resource. Helping students understand the difference among different websites and their purposes; teach kids how to use them effectively. If we know the better way to use technology, it would be a benefit for education. here to edit. Image from: https://www.pinterest.com/crhebert/one-ipad-one-classroom/
0 Comments
I'm not a a super fan of Twitter, but I do like it. Twitter is still new to me so far. I came from a different background; I have a better social networking with people from my county. Fortunately, twitter could help me fit in the community that I currently within. I will know what happens around me in the world without going out. I can learn a lot from people from different field. Twitting is pretty good! For personal reason I usually not so active on Twitter or any other social networking sites. I often hiding under the water and see what happen to other people in the world. I like that. I do agree twitter is helpful for our students. Twitter helps we teacher build closer relationship with our students. We could know each other better to some degrees. Twitter is a nice and easy way for us to follow and make connections with our kids. It could be a good tool for Education. I'd like to learn more about twitter. Video from www.youtube.com I came form China and I have stayed here in Regina for three years. Currently I major in English and minor in social studies. This is my third year of university. I took high school in China; I graduated in June, 2012. I didn't have much experience with adolescents, but I have a younger sister and a younger brother,they both young teenagers. For interests, I like cooking, backing, traveling;and I love music and movies.
Actually, I transferred from Business to Education in my first year. I just realized that I want to be a teacher although we don't have any educator in my family. I like children and young people and I can feel something inside me that really want to help them. I believe every child can grow. I think teaching is not only about lecturing and grading, but helping students maximizing their developments. As a teacher, it's our responsibilities to teach knowledge, help students become critical thinkers, and make more better people. I'm excited! When I was in China, we didn't have any technology devices in classroom and we were not allowed to bring any to classes. It was because they thought technologies would not have any good for students but distract our attention. We implemented the traditional way of teaching: teacher talking and students taking notes. However, I changed my view after I came to Canada. I found technologies are pretty useful and helpful in classroom. Our responsibility is helping students using their phones, ipads, and laptops appropriately and effectively, which would support their works. I desire to know more about technology in classroom! Honestly, I often feel nervous because I have a different cultural background and I'm not a natural English speaker. I worried if I could teach natural English speakers. But I will try my best because I know I want to be a teacher. I think I need to be more confident. I'm happy I can be here study with you and my peers; and I wish we can have an excellent journey together! ^^ |
AuthorXiaocan (Catherine) Wang Archives
April 2017
Categories |