Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I won't go down without a fight

Digital Native I am not, in any sense.  I recently purchased a lap top and only use it to type papers and read my email.  It's not that I haven't tried, I just find it overwhelming and frustrating.  I have in the past taught myself certain things, but I haven't been able to self-teach technology.  I think I'm being self-defiant.  

What type of immigrant am I?  Well I think I'm the type of immigrant that snuck into this technology world illegally and I want everyone to help me out, guide me and do the work for me. But I also need to hide out for awhile and not be seen. Maye if I hide out long enough and continue the way I've been teaching for 13 years, that it will go away.    I'm the type of immigrant that refuses to learn the lingo or adopt my new worlds culture.  I'll fight to the end to keep things the way they were (my comfort zone).  Although I'm also the type of immigrant that wants my daughter to take full advantage of all the benefits available to her and learn the new culture and immerse herself into it and become incredibly successful in that new culture.

I know there are overwhelming advantages and benefits to using technology in the classroom, but there are also great benefits to the way teaching has been done in the past.  Are children smarter today then when I was in school?  NECAP scores say no way!  World wide scores say absolutely not, among the industrilized nations.  We must as teachers and students come to a solution on how to integrate the 2 without compromising the education system. But we also need to have the funds available to bring this into the classroom if not we will continue to be livng in the dark ages 





http://www.mff.org/pubs/ME161.pdf (   student achievement in the classroom with technology)

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html(( higher student self esteem linked to the use of technology in the classroom.)


 

3 comments:

  1. I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability here... you really show how complicated all this can be! But you signed up for a week of this which says something (or did Sarah make you do it??) :)

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  2. (Also, when you put in your links, highlight the WORD -- like "Student Achievement Article" -- rather than pasting the text of the whole URL in the body of your post. Then we can just click the word to get to your link rather than having the messy URL in the middle of your paragraph... if this doesn't make sense, ask me tomorrow!)

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  3. Shannon, for someone who says they have no idea about any of this "tech" stuff your blog is great! I love the set and pictures. Good work!

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