Back Again! And some thoughts on technology and learning...
I won't say I'm the worst blogger ever - just maybe one of the least consistent ones. I have a great excuse though - and that is that student teaching and taking classes truly absorbs all of your time, energy, and thoughts. I was able to make a little bit of time for reflection, but not a whole lot of it for putting those thoughts into blog posts.
But that's ok. I am a person committed to quality over quantity!
Anyways, I think I was very lucky to be blessed with a phenonmenal student teaching experience. I landed in an incredibly rich and nourishing nest of supportive teachers who gave me the confidence to believe that yes, I can actually do this. I think that alone was critical and I am so fortunate to have them as role models and mentors.
One of the things I spent a lot of time thinking about this past semester is students and technology. I actually ended up doing my capstone research project on this topic. While it is fairly limited in scope, it gave me the opportunity to think about students and technology and learning, and how or where they intersect. One of th things I uncovered, at least for myself, is that students have technology skills, but they don't necessarily know how to apply social tech skills to academics. Now, of course, Prensky and others might argue that students today have an innate ability to use technology. I would argue, however, that although students have social technological fluency, they lack academic technology fluency: meaning, they just don't know exactly how to use tech for learning. I don't think we can expect them to innately know how, either.
No, I don't think these thoughts are completely unique: I'm sure many others have realized and written about this idea. But, I think that there is an assumption that students know how to use computers and just choose to constatnly check facebook or twitter and not do their work. Instead, I think if teachers engage students on these types of social technology platforms, and model for students how these things can be used for real learning (that part is key), maybe students will shift from using technology as a distraction towards truly engaging in learning on platforms they are comfortable and knowledgeable in.
Just some thoughts for today. I hope to continue writing about this, and thinking about easy ways to integrate technology into effective learning.
Until next time, whenever that may be. :)
