The other day, I received a comment from a high school teacher who said: she didn’t like digital technology in classrooms and the internet is a pain. She did give reasons for this attitude (e.g. frequent breakdowns of her whiteboard and strict internet censorship in her school), but her comment still saddened me.
Not because she has obviously not “got” how useful digital technology is as a motivator and communicator for young people’s learning. Not because she does not realise that part of her responsibility as a teacher is to prepare her students for their future and media literacy is part of that future. What saddened me was the fact that I hear this comment over and over again from teachers, and often from very dedicated, intelligent, and engaged teachers. The only problem is, when it comes to media literacy, they are engaged in teaching methodologies of the last century.
Well, not to be discouraged. Head up. Eyes forward…
I am a technology aficionado but I will admit that sometimes it is a huge hassle in the classroom. E.g. one classroom has laptops for the students to share, I want them to go to a website but find that not all laptops have Flash enabled, or some mundane detail like that. Or they're not charged... Problem is there needs to be someone in charge of maintaining and updating so that the teachers can use all this amazing technology to teach!
ReplyDeleteNot only do you need good equipment and someone to do the maintenance on it, you also need teachers who really like using it.
ReplyDeleteI find that things are getting increasingly bizarre in that there are so many people out there with firm beliefs about the nature of computers and the internet who haven't taken a look around. I find that even close friends don't look at our blogs or websites because they rate "user-generated content" as stupid, superfluous, and egocentric.
The other thing is that I always assumed today's teenagers were computer and internet-savvy but they're not. I had to show a student how to google for a video yesterday...
I just found out that many of our students don't even know how to find a book on the library shelves! I went on a class trip to the library (they go every two weeks) and I would say 90% of them didn't know that the fiction stacks are alphabetical by author, or that you have to read the "guides" at the end of the shelf to find what letters are on that shelf, or that the books are arranged from left to right, top to bottom!
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