The
other day in my READ 411, Language and Literacy, class, a group presented a
unit on confidence in the classroom and showed how technology can be both
helpful and detrimental to learning. First, one of the students used a
projector to display some information on the board and use it as a makeshift
"smart board" as our classroom was not equipped with one. She went
through similar fractions, giving examples and displaying pictures but mostly
just lecturing. After she was finished she asked us if we felt confident with
the material. Most of us agreed, blindly, and shrugged our shoulders. After
that was finished another student then presented a parallel lesson, where she
taught us the same material but in a different way. She used lots of hands on
material, like cut out fraction pieces and color by number sheets, and then had
us access an online application relevant to the lesson. The whole group, using
one or two laptops, then took turns playing the game and everyone had a lot of
fun. By the end of the second lesson everyone said they felt comfortable with
the material and everyone had a smile on their face too. This just goes to show
you that even fun kid-oriented games can be fun and instructional. Just because
students are older doesn't mean that fun apps don't hold some validity to their
learning. Likewise, by using one-sided technologies, like the smart board, you
prevent students from utilizing and interacting with the technology and
distance them from the learning process.
I am glad that you shared this! This represents how there are multiple ways of getting a topic across to students. Teachers need to be able to connect to their students and get them engaged in order for them to feel confident in what they learned. There is no correct way of teaching a particular lesson, and there are so many different ideas that can be learn from the internet or simply by asking another teacher.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that even older students enjoy fun websites with educational games. We all know what it is like to sit in a classroom where all the teacher does is lecture. Several times we catch ourselves dazing off.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
The closer I am to teaching, I feel like I am experiencing my close friends questioning why i chose math. The important part is that I know I chose math for that exact reason. So many people have this idea that math is all boring lecturing, but there is really so many other activities that would enhance the lessons. I also think that the more aware of the resources that are available online, the "traditional, lecturing" of math will be much less popular.
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