I was recently reading a blog from "The Tech Savy Educator" titled:
How Technology Reinforces Poor Learning – An Experiment
When I first read the title of this article I was a little turned off because I don’t look at technology as a way of reinforcing bad habits, but rather a supportive tool to compliment the “traditional” lesson plan. The author of this blog seems to be criticizing StudyBoost which is “a service that teachers can submit a battery of review and study questions, which are then delivered to student’s devices whenever they have time to study in their normally hectic schedules”. I think his main issue with a service such as this, is the idea of “wherever/whenever”. To have students “studying” while at a football game or a noisy bus doesn’t seem effective to him. I tend to both agree and disagree with the author on this topic. I agree that if the student chooses only to use a service like this when he or she is highly distracted by other events taking place then the student might not be getting all they can out of it, but with the same token, I believe a service like this offers great possibilities, and as I mentioned before I believe technology tools are an additional aid to students being able to grasp content. The author thinks this might just be a cool use of technology but I think it’s that and more. It’s a cool use of technology that can be engaging for students and they can learn from it by having the teacher’s questions, notes, and comments at their fingertips.
The author of this blog did make a great point about the idea of using this service by running “student-led” study sessions, and I think that’s a fantastic idea. But why can’t it be both? Student-led & teacher-led? Do you think it is really a waste of time for students to have the teachers posting this kind of content for them? These are my thoughts on the topic, but the writer has decided to conduct an experiment to see if others feel certain technologies are not being used in an effective manner in the classroom. I can see teachers not using all technology effectively due to lack of knowledge and training of the tools more so than a lack of the particular technology tool being useful to students. I’d love to know how others feel about this?
Hello Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I too was skeptical about reading this article, but I tried not to be judgmental. I'm not sure how much of this blog post was out of frustration and perhaps venting. I do like the "experiment" he is doing, which is really not an experiment, but more of a survey of technology gone wrong. The aspect I like is his question, "Could the technology be used in a more effective manner?" Every new technology may tempt us to jump in without truly exploring it first. We must use critical thinking skills (good models for what we expect students to be able to do...) in applying these technologies in the classroom. I'm not sure about the specific technology he is discussing, I'd have to look into it and get back to you.
Thanks,
Sean