What is significant is that kids are able to create and sustain new private social worlds through the use of messaging and blogging, worlds that are separate from, yet overlapping with, institutions such as family and school. Emerging kids’ cultures encompass, and perhaps predict, new definitions of public and private space that sometimes transcend the boundaries that govern adult life – age and sex, institutional rules, national boundaries, and so forth.
As educators this has made our task slightly more difficult. To properly educate our student we must be able to understand the world with which they are living in. That is easy enough when we are talking about our current world, but when we examine the life of our students “additional worlds” – such as social networks and through other forms of technology it becomes difficult to truly understand what our students are being exposed to, as these worlds are basically “private”. On the contrary to making our lives more difficult this opens a new way of education our students. We can use these forms of technology that have grasped our students and apply them in education ways to gain the child interests and create a safe and exciting learning environment or a learning world.
Some software encourages innovative participation in extending design and experience, or teaches cognitive skills through software and media design activities.
I chose this quote as it pertains to my area of concentration. Through my classes as a Business Education Teacher – I have access to multitudes of technology and try to incorporate as much as possible in each lesson. I like to teach the students how to use the technology and test them through an application process in where the product the create serves as their test, or evaluation of skills learned. – Cognitive Skill
The mobile phone and the Internet are changing the scale and scope of kids’ worlds -- from small local face-to-face relations to potentially very large technology-mediated social networks that can cross many social boundaries, including age, class and race.
I find this quote to be very important as it obtains to social relationships, which play a crucial role in student’s development and personality. Students today tend to use technology as a shield. For instance kid’s will now bully each other through the internet, social networks, and text messaging, students will now discuss important matters with friends through these multitudes as well. The horrifying result of this interaction is the results during adult hood, when the kid (now an adult) is unable to handle face-to-face confrontation or interactions in the work place – usually these adults will tend to hide behind e-mail communications. While these new advances are great and I strongly encourage them, I believe there needs to be an equal balance between face-to-face communication and technological communication.
Being a Business Education teacher, you probably have a lot of access to the newer technology and can implement it in your classes. This kind of interaction lets you know if the technology is a good match for school age children.
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteA question about qoute 1, I here a lot of people say we should incorporate these new tecnologies into the classroom to help keep a students attention. My question is always the same, how would you incorporate them? Most of the kids I talk with think that adults on Facebook is annoying. They feel we have invaded their space and many are no longer using it and have moved to twitter, for this reason. Most of their social space is just that, theirs. They do not want to see it used as a tool in school. And, with many kids still not having access to mobile devices, computers, or high speed Internet, how do we use this in the classroom.
I really liked what you had to say about your first quote! I too agree that as teachers need to better understand the technology that students use, as well as, knowing some of the things they have been exposed to. If we have better understanding of these “private” worlds then we will be better able to educate them. In a way, I feel like this course is one of those “private” worlds…maybe this would be something that we could use with upper level grades that we teach. Great Post!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat question Erica! I think it is important and difficult to figure out how to appropriate social media for school related purposes in ways that won't diminish there appeal for young people. Lena I find your comment about this course being like "private world" interesting. I feel like it is too. Do online courses in particular feel like "private worlds" or is it something about this course in particular? I've never taught or enrolled in an online course before.
ReplyDeleteErica in response to your question. Incorporating technology in the classroom is just that the use of it in in combination of the curriculum and to meet CSOs. Yes understanding social networks and how they affect our students lives are very important. But by all means I think it is VERY inappropriate to "friend" students on facebook, or try to be a part of their social network. However I feel that the creation of wikis and blogs and social networks like ning can be very beneficial in the classroom. You are creating an education network for the students in which they are able to have social interaction through the web. This work can not be required outside of the classroom, so all students would have equal access to the technology. I do not believe that by creating this education network, an educator is invading a students "space" but rather creating another space - and educational space for the student.
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