How my thoughts are changing...continued

Reading these articles as well as examining the life of a typical 12 year old resulted in a few thoughts about teaching the youth of today:

• It is important to incorporate technology into the classroom. Not just “layering” it, but to really incorporate it.


• Technology is an important focus, but it should not be the sole focus in the classroom. Many different types of activities can be engaging for students. One day I had my students work on giant pieces of paper and when I held up the giant paper to show them…the room was filled with gasps of amazement, excitement and anticipation. Furthermore, simulations and problem-based learning activities that involve critical thinking and group interaction can be engaging and valuable for students.


• This generation has a “different” type of attention span and they seem to excel at multi-tasking (simultaneously engaging in multiple IMing sessions while searching the Internet and watching video clips etc. is relatively “normal” behavior) and these skills need to be taken into account while developing curriculum. (““Their short attention spans,” as one professor put it, “are [only] for the old ways of learning.” They certainly don’t have short attention spans for their games, movies, music, or Internet surfing.”” Engage Me or Enrage Me)


• Visuals are important to today’s students and video clips, photos, pictures and other multi-media files should be incorporated into the classroom.


• Students are becoming self-directed learners.


• While Blooms taxonomy has long been functional, the updated, digital version provides a new framework for the digital age.


• Students using technology need to be monitored to make sure they are actually working…Messing Around but not messing around. All too often their Facebook status will be written from class or they are IMing friends about social topics. To observe this tendency to get off topic on the computer, one only needs to look at a roomful of teachers at a school sponsored in-service…how many are really hard at work on their laptops doing in-service related stuff? (Many are checking their own Facebook accounts, answering e-mail, writing lesson plans, looking at vacation photos…)


• While the virtual world provides rich opportunities, let’s not forget the real world and the experiences it offers as well.