Question - Have we gone to far to fast?

Is the technology being developed for use in our schools, currently heads above what most teachers understand and could effectively use in their classrooms? And if this is so, should it be used? And if it is to be used, how should it be used? What would be most effective for the instructor and the class?

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on April 12, 2008 at 9:16am

I started a student directed project using Mnemograph with a group of sixteen sixth graders last week. I told them I would give them no help and answer no questions (knowing they were capable of doing a great job on their own). I later blogged about the project to get some feed back and one of the girls responded saying that this was the first time in seven years of school that she had done a project that was not teacher organized or teacher directed! Sad state of affairs for all of us.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on April 12, 2008 at 9:36am

I love that, Nancy!

I too worry about the future of our society. Where will our future citizens come from if we consistently stunt their ability to make choices and take risks?

I'm reminded of my fabulous 7th grade history teacher. Anytime anyone asked him a question like, "how many pages does the paper have to be" he'd say, "You cook a turkey until it's done." He changed my life, but no scarier words were ever spoken ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Tom Whyte on April 12, 2008 at 9:30pm

So is it possible to provide an environment where our students receive the ability to make decisions, yet provide the security that districts need to ensure the reasonable safety of their students?

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on April 13, 2008 at 8:12am

Of course, but are teachers aware of how to or trained to facilitate that type of learning? We've done many projects over the years that have students collaborating and making decisions based on their interests and learning preferences. Last year we did a huge project and this year we are doing another one. I don't teach in a regular classroom but what we accomplish is done in 6.5 hours a week--will the classroom teacher ever give up (or be able to give up) 6.5 hours a week to teach kids to think?

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Permalink Reply by Courtney Jones on November 21, 2010 at 2:27pm

While technology continues to advance, it is not too advanced for teachers to use in the classroom. It is important for teachers to continue to learn and keep up with the digital world. Teachers should adapt their lessons to fit in new technologies. It is not fair to students to exclude the newest technology, because then they don't have any experience with it either.

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Permalink Reply by Pablo Benvenuto on November 22, 2010 at 11:47pm

There are tools that are both powerful and easy to use. My partners and I have developed a new community for teachers and students called StudyBuddyCampus. It is free and it represents our vision of the future for the use of technology in the classroom. Our goal is to revolutionize the delivery of education by combining an interactive game like experience with the latest educational content. We have several teachers and students testing our Beta site at http://www.studybuddycampus.com, and we are constantly releasing new features. Given the topic of your discussion, I thought you might be interesting in taking a look, and if you have the time, we would love to receive feedback from people with your kind of experience.

Best Regards.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Morales on December 2, 2010 at 6:53am

I think technology is defenitely changing teaching now a days, but its making it better. Yes it is making it heads above to what most teachers understand, but it think it should defenitely be used in the classroom and teaching environment,