...for a new class! As I progress through my Masters in Educational Technology, I am now taking EDET 573 - Technology to Enhance Literacy. As a 4th grade ELA teacher, nothing is nearer to my heart than literacy! I am so excited to jump in and find more ways to support literacy in my classroom. My students and I use my website a lot ... and this year I can't wait to use it more, for blogging, discussions boards, and other forms of collaboration. Check it out here!
While I absolutely love technology, I also love to read books and write on paper ... so I often have some incredibly mixed feelings - and find myself struggling to incorporate technology without doing simply for the sake of technology. I am excited to learn and practice more ways to use technology to truly enhance literacy!
As we jump into week 1 we started reading two books: Technology to teach literacy: a
resource for k-8 teachers and Literacy 2.0: Reading and writing in 21st century classrooms. I think both of these books promise to be interesting reads. First of all, I love that both books discussed Project Based Learning - this is something I have been researching and am very interested in! I loved reading more people talking about how great it is - and talking about how it fits with technology.
The readings also pointed out lots of important things ... three of my favorite ideas were:
1. 'Literacy' doesn't just mean reading a book and isn't just based on print texts. Redefining literacy is a big deal before moving forward in a technology centered world.
2. Technology use ups motivation, engagement, and problem solving ability. All three of these things are a huge part of what I strive for with my students every day. And frankly, when it comes to true engagement and motivation, why not take all the help we can get? If technology is motivating - then I want to be using it!
3. Students need us to help them learn how to use technology. Electronic communication will be a requirement in the digital world and work force our students are entering. In their future jobs they will be asked to use unknown technologies - some of which haven't even been thought of yet. Technology is important to their lives ... and I need to be helping them get prepared.
I am passionate about literacy. And, if I'm going to be addressing literacy in its entirety, then I certainly need to be using technology with my students!
I too agree that it is very important for our students to learn more about technology since they will be using it more and more in their future educational careers. I do feel like our students are becoming more and more distant with writing skills since everything is so technology driven. In my opinion, technology usage is shortening attention spans and people in general are becoming more dependable on technology and forgetting how to use things like paper and pencil. As much as I believe there are many great uses for technology in education, I do believe there are just as many reasons students need to know how to use other methods of learning. I want to share this article with you. I thought of you and many other teachers that share these mixed emotions about technology vs. paper...enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHas technology ruined handwriting article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/tech/web/impact-technology-handwriting/
Your third comment really speaks volumes. I have often found myself thinking of how excited I am to use these new tools we're learning about, and I want to incorporate so many of them. But I think it's crucial to focus on maybe one or two at a time and get the students to really know that tool and all the great features it has to offer. And I can almost guarantee our students will find new and exciting things we didn't know they did.
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