I’ve been visiting a variety of sites throughout the ed-tech blogosphere that tout the benefits of online classes and the necessity for students to experience asynchronous learning environments before they leave high school…and I get it…educators need to push the use of online and collaborative environments for students.
But I often wonder, are these experiences any more enriching than traditional face to face classes or are we all simply caught up in the novelty of using the technology ? I ask because of how my former district purchased and implemented technology in the classroom. We often purchased computers and other peripherals but the purchases were often teacher centered. Smart Boards were just expensive chalkboards.
I am taking, and have taken, online classes but they were just extensions of the traditional lecture. Instead of seeing the professor, I would watch a pre-recorded lecture video. Instead of the quiz taking place in class, it would take place online. This isn’t exactly a paradigm shift. It’s just the same old school dressed in fancy new clothes.
I’ve set up my Moodle install for next year…but I would really like to collaborate with other teachers so we can do more than just use it to post assignments. How can we truly integrate something like Moodle into our classes so that students take ownership for their learning and not just use it to take quizzes.
I’ve used google docs with my department in the past to write lesson plans….I would like ideas from other educators on other ways to use collaborative technologies with teachers. How can we use technologies like google docs, skype, etc…to collaborate…in real time…during the school day for the benefit of our students ?
So….any thoughts ?
Your comments are spot-on. I’m here by way of Field Negro, btw.
There are those who have carved out a blog niche by professing the wonders of technology in the second language classroom, and using the tools and gadgets by any means necessary. But, I happen to believe that there first must be a linguistic purpose and objective to using technology, not because it’s the flavor of the day, or because it’s the world of our students. Nothing replaces human interaction in the classroom – students between students, students between teacher. While Skype brings the world to the classroom, nothing replaces actual, on the ground travel to the countries where the target language is spoken.
So, I do believe it is the teach, not the tool, whereas some of the edutech junkies are pushing, it’s the tech, not the teach. (Pun intended).
Many of the tools designed for Web 2.0 have been co-opted for teacher use, not student use, i.e. Smart Boards, blogs, wikis, etc.
Until we as teachers actually come to a full and complete understanding what student-centered learning really is, only then will we be able to put the tools into the hands of students, so that they may be able to direct and take responsibility for their own learning.
Short story: The edutech wizkids have gotten it all wrong, IMHO.
Awesome comment. I apologize for responding to you so late. But you’re right. Student centered has been reduced to buzz word status and it isn’t just the ed-tech talking heads that have gotten it wrong. School administrators and university professors have screwed the pooch too.
I think it would be cool for edu-bloggers to do an meme where people from different content areas describe, or if possible, show what a true student centered classroom would look like physically.
I think the physical aspect of it is the most challenging. Traditional teachers are still stuck on striaght rows of desks and computers and other learning tools being put off to the side somewhere…with textbooks and the blackboard/smart board/overhead projector/lcd projector being the focus of the room.