Technology in the Classroom
Hey everyone! I'm Giselle Diaz. I am currently in my third year at CSUN and am an English Subject Matter major. I hope to teach middle school in order to be a positive influence on students and help them succeed! Growing up my favorite subject was always English because it welcomed numerous answers without the "correct" or "incorrect" concept of other subjects.
I grew up not liking to read books because I felt like they had no connection to me, since I was only exposed to books that schools found essential to education. Although now I like to read the classics, my enjoyment of reading didn't start until I found books I felt were more similar to me and dealt with issues I had once gone through. I also loved being able to dive into shows and movies because of the same reason, familiarity. Media was something I understood and liked.
Media technology can be incredibly beneficial in a classroom setting because it helps students understand what they might not. For some students, having a game or a video from the media can help give instructions to a lesson better than just words. For instance, when having to explain different types of concepts to students, providing a media example can demonstrate it further and help them reach an understanding that will stick with them. There are also many apps that are used in classroom settings that help students feel like they are able to speak up without being embarrassed of whether they are wrong or right.
However, like everything else, there are drawbacks to media technology. By allowing students to be purely on electronic devices or rely on only media examples, it can cause their minds to not reach their full potential as it is not being exercised in the multiple ways of learning. It also serves to a distraction for some students that start using their devices for things that have nothing to do with the classroom.
I believe there will always be benefits and drawbacks to every learning method and it is up to the teachers to create a balance for the students. By not allowing too much of something, it wires brains to figure out multiple ways of tackling a problem and this will help a student's academic abilities. While we live in a heavy media world, there are classic techniques that need to be applied in education still because they work.
Hello Giselle,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your views. I think technology in the classroom is a very nuanced conversation, given that we live in a digital age. While I notice the negative affects social media has had on me, I find it alarming that many apps and devices that could be beneficial for students are being lumped in with Instagram, Twitter, and the like. I think there is a massive difference between Kahoot and Instagram, but nonetheless I see them being compared, and the former being discredited. If a classroom consisted solely of Kahoot quizzes and no lecture or real, human interaction, this would be a different conversation. Neither of us are suggesting that though, haha.
While reading some of our classmate's responses and thinking more deeply on some "no screens at all" viewpoints (which I understand, conceptually), I do want to point out that screens themselves can lead to distraction, eye-pain, and other negative effects. That is why I gravitated toward your point about balancing a classroom. Giving students access to as many tools and thoughtpaths as possible can never be a bad thing, I think.
Take care!
Hey Giselle, that’s amazing that you want to get into Middle School Teaching! I am so happy that you found a great passion, I too want to get into High School teaching first and then College, but let’s see where that ship sails lol. However, yes, the importance of media is sometimes overshadowed but can be very dangerous as a whole when too much engagement is presented to the targeted audience. In addition, media is a great way to better use in classes, due to its engagement within the workings of Kahoot, Zoom or MyMathGames, a popular platform if we all know lol. But rather than the good and bad, we just need to learn how to utilize it more professionally rather than using it on a larger scale. Networking within mental health is a symbol of professional productivity within progression of the current state of mind.
ReplyDeleteHi Giselle,
ReplyDeleteI, like you, also gravitated towards English because of how flexible stories and their underlying themes can be in terms of viewing and understanding them. Unlike Math, there are typically no correct answers when delving into the subject of English.
To your point on the use of technology in the classroom having benefits and drawbacks, I completely agree. Much like many things, there are always two sides to a coin, and the use of technology in the classroom certainly has two sides. There are many positives to technology, such as providing diverse modalities for learning, including videos, educational games, digital textbooks, text-to-speech readers, and more. However, the distractions that come with using technological devices can pose a risk to the learning environment. If students are given the means to access devices which provide them with non-educational apps, then there will always be a temptation for distraction in the classroom. Integrating strict technological blockades, such as making students lock their phones away in pouches, restricting access to non-educational websites on student devices, or even restricting certain websites via the school Wi-Fi, can prevent distractions which reside outside of educational-related concepts.
Great post!
- Rachel Franks