Final Reflection: Cell Phones and Education

Final Reflection: Cell Phones and Education

Final Reflection Blog Post

Cell phones in the classroom:  Good, Bad, and?  

She looks around furtively, and then glances back at the land-of-the-unknown; otherwise known as under her desk.  She thinks I don't see her.  But she has underestimated the strength of my vision.  Cold eyes trained from years of my own desk-texting escapades, I see her clearly.  She slips her phone back into her backpack. We make eye contact.  She glances down and away quickly in escape.  

Secretive cell phone use in high school and junior high classrooms is a widespread phenomenon.  Classes are regularly disrupted with the confiscation of a student's most prized possession.  The miniature Pandora's boxes are covered in brightly colored sticky notes, and then sent to the cavern of horrors (interpretation: principal's office).  Students must check their phones out after class, sometimes with additional warnings or actual consequences.  I have heard that some schools send students to detention if they are caught with a phone in class, particularly in junior high.

Over the course of the past school year, I have learned and grown as a student teacher.  I have become fully immersed in the school culture, and I have experienced many different classroom environments and situations.  I have heard many teacher's opinion on cell phone use, and the effects of cell phone use on their learning experience.   I have also seen cell phones used quite often for academic purposes, and I wrote about such an experience in an earlier blob post in which I wrongly interpreted the usage of a cell phone belonging to a young foreign exchange student.  The student had been using her phone as a translator, in order to help her finish an assignment.  I had asked her to put her phone away, and she quickly informed me that she had been using it for academic purposes.  I felt immediately guilty for calling her out, but based on my previous observations, it wasn't an entirely unreasonable assumption.

 After this interaction and many more similar in confrontation (but with different outcomes) I became curious.  How were students actually using their phones in class?  When were they most likely to use them for academic purposes?  What were they using them for?  And finally, the question that I began pondering this question, "how does that academic use of cell phones impact student learning?".  I began talking with students, and making notes of what I was seeing in my classes.  I eventually decided to give students in my 10th grade college prep English classes an anonymous survey regarding their cell phone usage.

While passing out the surveys, I assured students that their answers would be completely anonymous and that I would hold nothing against them, regardless of what they answered.  Students laughed at this when I said it, but were fairly frank and open with their responses.

The survey included one short response: "If you use your phone in class, what do you usually use it for?" as the starting question, followed by 3 multiple choice questions.

The results of my survey showed that out of a population size of 60 students, only 3 did not use their phones for academic purposes, or for any other purpose in class.  2 of these students did not own a phone (and were somewhat bitter of that fact--they wrote me notes on the survey about how upset they were) and one student wrote that she had never used her phone in class.  This statistic showed me that the majority of my students had actively used cell phones in class for academic purposes (and many other purposes, as I later discovered through the short answers).  This means that cell phones used for academic purposes play a large role in my students' everyday learning experiences.  This causes me to want to do more research into the overall effectiveness of cell phones as a learning device.

How do students use their cell phones in class? 

These responses also led me to read the short answers given in the first question of the survey, asking "If you use your phone in class, what do you usually use it for?" 
Of the 60 students in my classes, I counted their responses (usually two to three suggestions of use per student) and came up with the following percentages to discuss how my students were using their phones in class:

1.             43.3 % said texting or social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat

2.            27.8% said they used their phones as calculators

3.            25% said they used their phones to "look stuff up"

4.            23.3% said "other", which includes playing games, "useless apps", and other educational or divergent purposes. 

5.            18.3% said they use their phones to listen to music in class

6.             17.6% said they used their phones as a dictionary

7.            8% used their phones to look up grades or assignments on EDU

8.            7.6% said they used their phones to access Google Translate. 

This data shows me that over the class period, nearly half my students are likely to use their cell phones for non-academic purposes.  Between 20 and 30 percent of my class will be using their phones for simple, necessary academic purposes.  Less than 20 percent of my class uses their cell phones as a dictionary, which was less than I had previously thought.

I got several written responses that "apps were useless" and "apps are lame", (liberty of inference, academic apps).  Teachers should keep this student opinion in mind when attempting to use apps for education.  While some students may be into it, assume that not every single one of your students will think you are cool for letting them use educational apps on their phones in class.

When do students use their cell phones?
My next survey question asked students when they usually used their phones in class.

1.             88.3% said right before or after class

2.            60% said they would use their phones in class if they were having a "really important text message conversation"

3.            55% said they would use their phones when the class seemed boring

4.            35% said they would use their phones if they were doing independent work in class

5.            33.3% said they would use their phones if they had to do group work in class

6.            25% said they would use their phone if "something interesting is 'going down' on Facebook, Instagram, etc

These answers showed me that the majority of my students used their phones with the most frequency directly before or after class. I thought this was interesting, because it showed some aspect of respect in lack of cell phone usage, and it also showed that students assumed I meant when they most often used their phone for non-academic purposes, even though that was not what I asked.  Students must have immediately associated phone usage with non-academic work.

I also learned through these statistics that students were most likely to use their phones if they were "bored" or doing independent work.  This result relates back to my previous musings about cell phone usage.  I wondered if students used their devices for non-academic purposes when the vibrance, rigor, and pace of the class was such that they were intellectually, emotionally, and socially lulled or driven to escape.  I saw the difference in how and for what purpose students used cell phones in class as directly related to how teachers presented content, and I see nothing in my data to prove my hypothesis invalid.


How often do you use your phone for academic purposes?

I was curious as to how often students actually used their cell phones for academic proposes. The answer was rather unexpected.
Of the 60 students:

1.             57.6% said they used their phones "often, 2-3 times per week or more".  One student wrote a note to me and told that she uses her phone "100 times per day! I would probably be failing without it!"  The jury is still out on the accuracy of that statement, but the emotional is valid and apparent. 

2.             Several students actually added a category in the margins, which included 2 responses of "5 times or more per day" "1-10 times per day" "very often" and another "100 times per day"

3.            18.3% said they used their phones for academic purposes about once per week

4.            5% of students said they used their phones for academic purposes about once every 2-3 weeks

5.            1.6% said they used their phones for academic purposes once every month or less.

This shows me that for the majority of my students, cell phones are a vital part of their academic lives and, if we are to take the above quoted student as an example, potentially related to the academic success.

These results are incredibly influential to my teaching practice.  What I had previously wondered about technology usage in my classroom became reality through data on paper.  The responses of my students showed me that I was right.  Technology is a tool of the opportunist.  If students are permitted to use their phones for non-academic purposes through the non-interactive and slow pacing of the classroom, they will.  But if the format of the classroom and the rigor and relevance of the content is such that students engage, cell phones are transformed into a tool for seeking knowledge.  I'm not say that students won't use their phones to goof around while they are in a fantastic, vibrant classroom situation.  I'm just saying it's more likely.  Look at the statistics above: while 60% said they would continue a "really important conversation" into the classroom (assume that this could be regardless of class dynamic), a close 55% said that they would use a phone if the class was boring.  These results show that the dynamic of the class is almost strong enough to equal the pull of an extremely important conversation.  For socially oriented teens, this is huge.
So teachers, if you want to see inappropriate cell phone use decline, make your classes interesting.  This might not solve the cell phone problem, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.




Reflection on Technology and Education: 

Over the course of this class, I have been exposed to more extreme and varied educational technology than I could have ever imagined.  And instead of feeling lured in by the shiny countered edges and beautiful colored graphs, I have actually have ended up feeling felt repulsed by the majority of "advances" in education.  The final class and mini research presentation scared me.  Google glass? 3-D printers of human flesh and organs?  Customized advertising?  Extensive and extremely personal student information available in widespread national data systems accessible by teachers, admin, the government, and private/public corporations?  Desks with iPad screens?

 As a humanities major, I had a brief and momentary nightmare of a loss of humanity somewhere in the glass and silicon rimmed future world.  I saw the end of the earth and education as we know it.  And I was scared.

After a few nights of traumatic apocalyptic dreams, I finally awoke to the realization that this brave new world I so dreaded would never happen--at least in my lifetime.  I hope to be part of a world with working iPads, desktops, and projectors in classrooms for heaven's sake.  I don't even have a darn working projection system in my classroom--much less a futuristic departing from traditional human life and experience.  My terror gradually died away as I realized that I had the opportunity to fight broken desktops all week.  Humanity would still exist as we know it, amongst the piles of broken technology and musty old textbooks.  Nothing would ever change, at least, not now.  Humanity will keep on struggling along, with its primeval whiteboards and 2-D educational experiences, at least for a few years longer (or until public schools actually get funded by some other means than cereal boxtops and the PTSA).

The most practically impactful part of this class has learning to use Google documents.  Honestly, this has revolutionized my experience as a student, and as a teacher.  It is incredible to have so many things so centralized, and accessible anywhere with a computer and internet access.  Bravo, Google, well done.  I now use Google docs for all my lesson plans, handouts, and classroom materials. I even started backing up files on my computer to my Drive.  It has radically changed my life.

This just in:  today, I had students submit an essay assignment to me via Google docs.  Most of them struggled with understanding the basics of the process, but through much hand-holding and step-by-step direction, students were able to accomplish this great feat.  I will certainly use Google docs with my students again, but I will make sure that I take into account their apparent fear of "technology" (cell phone aside) and I will be sure to scaffold every step of the process with them, assuming nothing about their previous experience, comfort level, or expertise with technology.

Thanks Torrey, it's been a great quarter!

Board with Education? Games and Learning in the classroom

"I'm tired of this book...It's so boring..." 

"Why do we have to do this worksheet?  I already know this stuff..."  

"But Ms. Nordwall--break starts in 10 minutes! "

If your students are anything like mine, you may have heard these classic lines a few times this year.  As the weeks spread onward towards winter break, my classes seem to be getting a bit stir crazy.  And now a central question every teacher faces on any day of the week become exceedingly pertinent: how do I keep my classes content-heavy and focused, while engaging students?

As I began to contemplate this question with greater urgency, I encountered several interesting options for bringing engagement and interest into the classroom.  While many students might think of board games as outdated initially, the games I researched are filled with interesting graphics that greatly resemble popular video games.  The length of both games is determined by the players, and the structure of the game is collectively focused and dynamically interactive.  Below I have included several reviews of board games that I would love to incorporate into my classroom instruction through thematic or historically focused literature units.  For the looming pre-break days, this would be a fantastic opportunity to reel in the youthful craziness and direct their enthusiasm towards something constructive.

Beowulf The Legend

Everyone loves a monster.  For a class unit on early to medieval literature, a board game known as "Beowulf The Legend" allows students to play the role of a hero, fight Grendel and Grendel's mother, and eventually face the great dragon, while learning the plot and central characters of one of the oldest works of literature.  According to Boardgamegeek.com

"The game consists of a series of auctions depicting different events in the legend of Beowulf. Players "bid" in the auctions by offering up cards representing the skills they will offer to help Beowulf succeed (fighting, cunning, etc.) in an attempt to earn rewards of points or powerful cards, or to avoid injuries or other penalties. Players can also take a `Risk' and draw two cards from the deck to bid with. But if the cards don't match the current auction, the player is forced to drop out. Players need to carefully manage their hands and the timing of when they choose to take risks to increase their chances of winning".

I would use this game to either supplement a unit on Beowulf or as an end of the semester/quarter activity.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17449/beowulf-the-legend

Shakespeare the Bard Game
Despite its auspiciously cheesy title, "Shakespeare the Bard Game" is a creative introduction or extension of the classic high school Shakespeare unit.  In this game players become managers of their own playhouse.  In a similar form to many monopoly style games, players must collect "acclaim" points though buying scripts from Shakespeare, hiring actors and collecting the right number of props, patrons and costumes for the play.  Players use shillings to purchase necessities and and are awarded through these activities:

"1. You may recite a speech where your audience decides how much you gain (1-10 shillings) based on your performance.
2. You may show your knowledge by answering an easy, medium, and difficult question about Shakespeare and gain 10, 15, or 20 shillings. These questions can be multiple choice or true/false.
3. You can Busk. Busking is an impromptu performance where you gain five shillings and a fate card." (Courtesy Boardgamegeek.com, "Board Games for English Teachers")

I would love to use this game during a Shakespeare unit with my students.  Not only would it be a fun supplement to content learning in my classroom, it would also give students a deeper understanding of early theater culture and the economics of art through examining the process of play production.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12372/shakespeare-the-bard-game

May your final weeks of the fall semester/quarter be ever enlivened with the spirit of fun and may your students never be bored.

Aeries, Awkward First Dates, and Student Teaching: Exploring The Data Bases

"Just be sure to take role on Aeries. It's important."

I remember the first day I took over my Cooperating teacher's classroom.  It was my second week as a student teacher, and my cooperating teacher was out for the day attending a district training.  We had a substitute, who gave me full freedom to follow my CT's lesson plans for the day.  I was scheduled to teach all six periods, and with the nervousness of a new student teacher, I planned frantically and arrived early to set everything up.  I greeted the young substitute, set up the classroom, opened my CT's iPad, and logged into Aeries.  Everything was working beautifully.

Until, of course, the moment I tried to submit attendance for first period.  Slowly the spinning pinwheel of death waltzed across the clean lines of the Aeries interface.  And then it was no more.  "Aeries has encountered a problem..."  Why yes, apparently it has.

We submitted attendance manually the entire day.  I survived my first takeover day as a student teacher, and eventually got over my nerves and throughly enjoyed each period (and collapsed from exhaustion at the end of the day).  But I never got over that first experience with the district-wide data base.  Like a terrible first date that never goes away, Aeries and I still have a somewhat strained relationship.  Maybe it's more of an awkwardly arranged marriage.

Aeries is the Santa Barbara School district's Student Data Base.  Through the Aeries browser, teachers and school administration can access students' class schedules, medical information, testing information, grades, and parent contact information.  The student's previous education (elementary, junior high) is visible, as are the parent's levels of education and the student's intervention and discipline histories.  Teachers generally use Aeries to take attendance and check student grades and histories.

Partnered with the Aeries browser interface is EDU 2.0, the district wide "online learning management system".  EDU 2.0 is designed for teachers to be able to create and give assignments, grade with imbedded rubrics, create online forums and chat groups, message parents or guardians, and record student progress, assignment specific grades, and missing or late work.  While Aeries stores student information, EDU is the tool with which teachers are most likely spend the majority of their working time.  EDU 2.0 is a powerful program, but is (as are all technologies in the public school system) heavily prone to constant slowness, random crashing, and irrational failures.

Rumor has it that several states are now creating massive and incredibly inclusive databases of student learning records.  This information is slated to be used to further student learning through informing teachers and (wouldn't you know it) curriculum providers of student needs and ideal strategies to reach students who might otherwise be falling behind.  And while the beauty of clearly organized and complete data on each of my students could very well be an excellent resource in my teaching practice, I feel reluctant to allow the siren song of this new possibility drawn me in.  Though the software companies project their interests towards the good of the "working class" (teachers), I know that we are fairly low on the economic food chain.  Rarely are programs created merely for the good of teachers.  We know who creates these programs, and that we are not the only ones with access to this goldmine of information.  And even lower on the food chain?  Our students.  I feel that this baring of student information could very well violate students and families' right to privacy.

  While I see the appeal of these high tech programs, I still don't know enough about the safety of centralized data to make a decided statement at this point.  And that causes me to shy away from any centrally available collection of personal data on students.   For this added insight, I call on my colleagues.  What do you think of central data collection interfaces?

Apples are for Teachers: Tech Tools and the App Store

IN the search for better education, we must first find better tools.  Apple, a technology provider whose name is becoming quite the catch phrase in education over the past few years, offers an app store with delectable variety of educational offerings for both teachers and students.  Some of these tools are free, and could be easily utilized on student devices or instructional iPads and computers.  But of course, the best things in life are never free: some of the following tools require a certain financial foundation, and therefore may be best as a resource on a teacher's iPad.

In light of my own natural prejudices towards creativity, my favorite app of the week is Paper by FiftyThree.  This fantastic app earned the App of the Year Award in 2012, and the five star customer ratings available on the app page give this award concrete credit.  The Paper app allows students and teachers to create elaborate "sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings" on a iPhone or iPad and easily "share them across the web".  This app could be used by students on assignments conducive to creativity, and would allow students to respond in class or at home, and then share their artistic interpretations with their class and instructor.  

The second app on my list this week is a word game called Psychobabble.  This app appears to be the love child of Scrabble and a crossword puzzle.  Psychobabble invites readers to engage in a variety of word puzzles, based on random associations between words and their meanings.  The app was created through the joined efforts of language experts at Ultralingua and New York Times crossword contributor David Liben-Nowell.  The app is free, and has earned 4.5 out of 5 stars from customers.  I would love to use this game to aid my students in their development of linguistic awareness and fluency.  This game would give students the basic cognitive skills that I believe will become increasingly more necessary in the future, with the integration of Common Core standards and instruction aimed at deeper literacy skills.  I wish I had used this app when I was studying for the MAT--It certainly would have speeded to my word association skills.  

The last app on my review is a favorite amongst ELA teachers.  SentenceBuilderTeen is an app that "is designed to help teenage children learn how to build grammatically correct sentences".  The app is apparently related to another award winning app that was designed as a complete program.  The teen version is a stand alone app aimed towards special needs teens.  It is recommended for ages 11-16, and is apparently often used by families in a home learning environment.  I would love to recommend this app to parents and guardians ($5.99 well spent) as a supplement to their child's general ELA education.  Because secondary level education often assumes mastery of the functions of the English language, high school and junior high teachers often neglect the teaching of linguistic conventions in the classroom.  For students with special needs, this could mean confusion and difficulties with written and verbal communication.  Parents and guardians could use this app together after school to help students grow in their knowledge of sentence structure and difficult English language conventions.  

As a student teacher, I am both intrigued and intimidated by the benefits apps for education have to offer.  I am intrigued by their complexity and power, and the potential they could have to engage students in the classroom.  And I am intimidated by my own tech ignorance and the insurmountable mountain of technological flakiness teachers have to deal with on a daily basis. I look forward to confronting my fears this year as I begin to experiment with technology in the classroom, and I believe that the accessibility of Apple apps for the iPad and iPhone make them a great place to begin this lifelong love-hate relationship.  

Technology in the Classroom:Tools or Temptation?

•  If your school/district were to go 1:1 (one laptop/tablet per student) or BYOD (students bring own devices), how would you approach this issue (e.g., behavior management strategies, have a conversation with students, have students develop an acceptable use policy)?

Um, Brittany, could you please put that away?

It was Tuesday, the second day of my new placement.  I was circulating the class during independent summary work.  I passed by Brittany's desk and noticed her phone openly displayed. She was bent over her device, entering lines of text; long blonde hair falling neatly around the corners of her cluttered desk space.  I was a bit taken aback at her seemingly bold defiance, and wondered what the school wide policy was on texting in class.  Coming straight from a junior high that enforced a total technology lockdown, I began preparing my spiel, complete with pink-rimmed allusions to the assistant principal, all framed in a neat 'for your own good' message--a language I've recently become so fluent in.  She turned to look at me, with a mixed expression of slight fear and self-justification on her face:  

But Ms. Nordwall, this is my dictionary.

Her voice carried a thick, graceful German accent.  She revealed the screen of her iPhone, in which I could see the parallel German-to-English translation occurring. I felt  an immediate sense of guilt--I had called out an innocent student, who was struggling to understand the article we were reading and using technology as support.  the iPhone screen imaged what must have been going on in her mind as she read the article--a translation of every English word on the pages into her home language of German, mental processing, and restructuring into English on her summary page.  She had discovered an app on her phone that merely speeded up the process for her, and allowed her to keep pace with her tenth grade English-language-native colleagues. I marveled at her speed with her "dictionary", and her ability to keep up with her classmates.  I wonder if she would have the same success a dictionary in print form.  Her ability to enter the answers and quickly retrieve them certainly made the process much faster than had she been struggling with Mr. Webster in full printed form.  

Five minutes later I looked up from a conversation with a student and saw one of my student smiling down at the broad "unknown" under her desk.  Unlike her classmate, Ali was not likely academically engaged.  This time I walked over and glanced at the screen of her phone before beginning a discussion.  Not even the shadows of her desk could hide the brightly shaded emoticons from my peering eyes.  All she needed was a reprimanding glance from the head teacher (precursor to a lecture on the consequences of cell phone use in class)--the cell phone disappeared from sight, and this time, fully.  

And herein lies my question.  Within the span of ten minutes or less, I had experienced every high school teacher's conundrum: when is technology a tool, and when does it merely lead towards temptation?  The allure of the device is sweet--sleek silicone city's lights bloom brightly.  The desire to know, the desire to hear, and be heard--the desire to share our human experience, even if it's just to a vague audience of psuedo-friends on social media. 

How can they resist the pull, when their textbook lies open on their desk, every page creating knowledge for them; an unwelcome virtual reality buried in foreign jargon. And why should they, when they can create their own reality through their personal virtual portal.  

When is technology a tool?  In my yet unproved and unexperienced opinion, it is the format of the class itself that determines the use of technology.  If a class allows students to create their learning, perhaps students won't need a virtual escape.  At least their longing for it might be lessened. When knowledge is presented to them, they needn't search for it.  The difference between my two students is not merely the way they used technolgy, but more their need for technology.  My German student needed technology to create an interpretation of the article, and to engage with the material that otherwise would have been inaccessible.  Her whole world in that moment was needfully in the classroom, in the present moment.  My American student's article was fully unlocked to her--she had no trouble decoding the words on the page.  In fact, she had no trouble slightly participating AND creating her own reality via text, all in the same moment. She could effectively be present in the technological middle-earth--the place in which one is neither here nor there, neither present nor absent. 

 

When is technology a temptation?  When the class allows it.  When the coursework is such that opens the door to boredom, to an escape.  Maybe if we designed classes and assignments that engaged students, and them to create something in the classroom environment, they wouldn't have time to slip out the cell phone escape.  Maybe they wouldn't want to.  

Call me an idealist.  Call me anything you want.  But I would like to believe that given the right academic environment and class structure, technology becomes a tool for students to use, not a temptation for them to abuse. 

The Salad Bar: Blogs and Learning

In the brief window-shutter spaces of my free time, I have recently been perusing various educational blogs in search of inspiration and wisdom.  Using my Feedly site I have collected several resources that sparked my interest as a future educator and life-long learner.  Much like a salad bar, good educational blogs bring readers edifying texts that while easily consumed in their brevity, enrich the soul of the reader with a sense of personal growth and betterment.

 Currently, one of my favorite cites is an online production of The New York Times, entitled The Learning Network , is actually an collection of educationally directed blogs from various writers. Generally quite interesting and vibrant, the blogs share a similar format and often include classroom application and interesting discussion.  The general set-up of The Learning Network's blog center incorporates a relevant film about 2-5 minutes long with a short, easily accessible article.  The questions and educational application materials, along with a short review of the article, are generally on the first page, with the video.  If you click on the central heading it will lead you to the main text of the article (slightly deceiving).  The format and layout of the page: clean, and very appealing.  The multimedia focus of the website makes it incredibly appealing to educators trying to reach potentially disengaged students.  The blogs are current, featuring captivating topics while including relevant and interesting information. This site would be incredible both as a resource for educators (think--three-dimensional lesson plans) and students, who I can easily see exploring the site for assignments even for pleasure.

While reading through some of the marvelous blog posts by contributing bloggers, I ran across this vibrant posting.  Rich in creative detail and themes of diversity, this blog post seems to channel a few of the most positive aspects of the blog site. A recent image from the September fires in the Southwest frames the introduction, followed by a gorgeous work of poetry. The poem is followed by a few lesson recommendations and a relevant news article. It is well worth a few moments of your time.

Check out this link for an inspirational pairing of "A Small Story About the Sky" by Alberto Ríos with a recent news article, posted by blogger Shannon Doyne.

Be sure to take time for the Salad Bar this week.  You never know just what might be growing.

Shakespeare and...?

When should technology be used in an English classroom?  

Where does it fit? Wedged between Shakespeare and sentence frames?  Book-ending Emily Dickinson and Poe? Is a beautiful accessory useful in conveying traditional learning or supplementing a traditional curriculum?  Or does technology and the modern era call for a revolution of language learning and communication?  Will the classics die in a tidal wave of informational texts and graphically embellished electronic novels?

 Could our modern culture be advancing at such a rate as to finally put Shakespeare himself  (at least in his printed form) in the musty edges of a cultural grave?

As lovers of literature, we hope that day will never come.  But we must embrace the benefits of using technology to connect with our students and their learning.

Tom Whitby, in his October 1st blog post entitled "Do We Really Need Connected Educators?" relates the imperative of digital literacy in education:

"...access is no longer limited to a select few, but rather it is available to anyone who is digitally literate...Ubiquitous access is one reason why digital literacy is now going to be taught in American schools as we move forward. Students in our school system today will be given the keys to the information lock boxes of our society for their consumption".

Students now have access to thousands of years of knowledge acclimation at their fingertips.
But though they have the keys, they may not be using them to unlock said 'lock boxes'.  As we are learning as future educators, students need a reason to search out the information.   And I believe that it is a humanistic connection students need to make with the material in order to peak their interest.  Literature builds a humanistic connection in an incredibly deep way.  Reading allows us to participate in the writer's creation, through activating our imaginations, instead of filling them with completed images, as video games, movies, and technologically based learning usually do.  And we need to understand the writers of the past, in the context of our shared humanity, in order to fully understand our human state.  But technology appears to be the 'language' of our students.  The question then becomes: if our students speak the language of technology, how do we 'translate' the meaningful influence of great literature into a relevant format?


At this point early in my career as an educator, I believe that technology can never substitute for:

• Authentic reading:  Students can use technology to aid reading, such as Kindle, iPad, computer, iPhone, ect., but no matter the depth of the technological tool, nothing will ever replace the educational value of reading.  Reading is essential in all learning, and literacy is the foundation of education and academia, and there is little evidence that academic learning will ever be effective without a reading component.  
• Face-to-Face conversations and collaboration:  social media and google docs are great for collaborating on projects and working on assigned tasks.  But have you ever noticed how hard it is to brainstorm and converse naturally in a 'physically separated' environment?  Nothing beats being able to see the faces of the people you are working with, and brainstorming is so much easier, and I believe more enriching and effective, in person.  
• Note-taking and writing: it's extremely easy to type out notes.  A good typist's fingers respond nearly automatically to the words being communicated, with little thought processing.  Its much easier to remember the things you manually write down, and for junior highers, many or whom do not have access to a working computer or printer, this is one of their only options for most of their coursework.
• Real books and classic authors:  nothing will ever fully replace a real book.  New authors will come and go, their works drifting about on the scales of cultural value.  I am all for new writings and diverse authorship. But the voices of the classics have called loudly out to humanity for many years, and there is likely good reason.  Our culture will shift and change, and so will our values, but good writing remains because it continually reveals to us our unarguable and un-aging utter human nature.  Our literary cannon can grow, but it should never be reduced. 

Technology is beautiful as a tool to gather information and communicate in conjunction with the foundation of original texts and unique ideas. I believe that using technology to open the gates of communication for our students is central to their development as young learners.  But the learning should not be fully encompassed in the act of communicating or acquiring information, but rather in the ideas and concepts that are being communicated. Below are a listing of activities that I believe are ideal for technological supplement:

• Group work on assigned tasks: once group work has been brainstormed and assigned(perhaps in class), technological wonders such as google docs create an ideal workspace and allow for distance communication and simple collaboration.  
• Access to articles and informative texts:  Save the earth, and preserve trees. For a brief reading of a homework assignment article for high school students, online access is great.  
• Optional assignments and extra credit
• Presentations: video clips and multi-media art
• Responses to literary works: blogs, websites, multi-media art...
• Online quizes and forums 
• Submission of essays
• Dictionary access for at home use
• Plagiarism checks

Creating an Online Forum as a Quiz

TodaysMeet In the Modern English Classroom

TodaysMeet : 1 2 3 4 5 

Three out of five stars for usability in the secondary classroom.

A few days back I was sitting in the faulty lounge, working on various projects in preparation for the coming school week.  I began investigating "TodaysMeet", an online chat/forum site developed for academic use in secondary schools.  After starting my own chat room I spent a few minutes amusedly playing around with a rather one-sided conversation.  The format was clean and simple, and there was little to distract or intimidate.  The chat responses appeared quickly and looked clean and well formatted.  The responder's name was in grey beneath the response.
After enjoying my narrative experience, I returned to my supervising teacher's classroom for her prep period, and noticed that she was preparing an online forum for her classes.  Thursday she will take students into the lab to experiment with an online discussion focused on questions from their "Greatness" unit.  I remarked to my CT that I had been just experimenting with a chat program.  She asked to look at it, and after I pulled it up, immediately remarked that the names beneath the writing were fairly difficult to see and identity.  It would take a second longer to identify the writer of the response.  She then reminded me that EDU 2.0, along with many other comparable programs, include a forum or chat response segment in the assignments section.  These responses can actually be electronically graded, based on participation.  She told me that although she liked the format of TodaysMeet, it was an extremely simple concept, quite common in many database and grading software programs.
While I did enjoy creating conversation on TodaysMeet, I would have to agree with my CT.  Forums are quite common these days, and many have more advanced features that lend themselves to higher academic purposes.  This particular forum is clean, simple, and easily visually scanned for length of response, ect.  Not having the students' names obviously presented near the response poses a problem however.  Other students will have a difficult time identifying their classmates' work, and it will be difficult for teachers to correctly identify student participation.  This chat forum would work well for situation in which student identity is not important, or when lack of obvious authorship is desired.
Another factor to consider: if teachers have the option to use a centralized forum or an independent forum, they will likely choose the school-centralized forum.  Students are already familiar with logging into EDU 2.0, and adding another login credential could confuse them.  Teachers also like having student work centralized, and conveniently available for grading and future examination.

On the plus side, TodaysMeet would be ideal for teachers who do not have access to a centralized, fully incorporated online forum system.  It is clean, clear, and seems likely to provide space for interesting discussions.

On the JesseJubileeGeorge Rubric for Pedagogically Aimed Technology, TodaysMeet falls into the category of a Low/Separate Level of Integration in the classroom, and will lend itself well to a individualistic or workshop format of learning.

Technology and Access in the Junior High Classroom

As I was configuring an online forum response for this week's English 7 homework, I spent a decent amount of time worrying over the format and accessibility of the assignment, the text, and the prompt.  And suddenly I realized a startling truth: my students may not even have internet access or a working computer in their own home.  As a child of the internet age, I often take the luxury of computer access for granted.  I grew up the daughter of a computer science wizard.  We always had two or three computers around the house, and if any of them were ever misbehaving, Dad would fix them within minutes of getting home from work.  I never even realized the privilege and blessing of regular computer access until early this week.

As a student teacher at La Colina Junior High, technology has been on my mind since the first week of school.  Our Apple TV refuses to function, our class computer is decrepit, and all other classroom technology seems to be nostalgic souvenirs from the dark ages of overhead projectors, transparencies, and the Gutenberg Printing Press. But I never fathomed the concept that a decent portion of our students wouldn't have basic internet or even computer access in their own homes.  We struggled with our projector and computer, in order to walk students through the process of posting on the forum.  And we asked students, almost as an afterthought, to raise their hands if internet access would be an issue for them.  Slowly, about thirty percent of our class raised reluctant hands in response.  And this seemed to be a fairly repeated event for all of our English 7 periods.  A significant portion of our students did not have a working computer in their home--in fact, they did not even have internet access on any device after school hours.  Even when they did have access, it was often limited in some way.  As a young student from my first period informed me: "I can't get on because my sister is always on...no, I can't really tell her to get off, she says what she is doing is important too".  Other families ask my cooperating teacher to print her weekly updates and send them home with their student because they have no way to access the electronic newsletter otherwise.  Clearly parents are also not able to check grades or stay updated on their students educational journey.  

Our library has a fairly large computer lab with between 15 and 20 computers available to students thirty minutes before school begins, thirty minutes during lunch, and thirty minutes after sixth period.  They are able to do both academic work and recreational activities on the computers, and academic printing is free to students.  While this is extremely helpful, it doesn't fully solve the issues of internet and computer access. If I were to ask my students to write a lengthy essay or response of some sort,  even several session of 30 minutes disjointedly spread throughout the day would not be enough.  Students from non-computer households would continually at a disadvantage academically if their only exposure to technological aid was within these brief windows.  

Through this week's discoveries concerning the technology available in my classroom, I have realized that many typical experiences in the classroom are transformed greatly through lack of access to computers and technology.  Students are also generally less comfortable with technology that I had previously assumed.  The implications are clear: think twice when assigning projects that require technology.  While technology can be a brilliant tool for learning, when a portion of students in a class are cut off from access to the tools, the activity can create a clear divide between those who have, and those who have not.  We must do what we can to maintain class equity, even if this means assignments must be given manually, or special considerations given to students without a computer in their home.  

As educators in the 21st century, we will be preparing students for careers that have yet to exist.  Our students will be using and inventing complex technologies that we can't even begin to fathom, and will be living in a world more connected and global than we could ever think possible.  In order to effectively prepare our learners for their futures, we must be prepared to use technology to communicate and connect with our students.  We must help them learn to navigate the massive amount of materials barraging them on a daily basis.  And we must make our content learning relevant to the technological nature of the world they are surrounded by.  Instead of a continual disconnect between a non-academic technology and information drenched 'reality',  and the 'reality' of their sterilized academic experiences, I want my students to see technology as a tool connecting them as global learners to people, ideas and experiences next door and thousands of miles away.


As an English teacher I want to prepare students for the kind of communication that goes beyond printed books and double-spaced essays.  They need to be able to interact with blogs, videos, multi-media art forms and presentations, and other growing fields of communication and idea sharing.   I want them to see technology as a way to "get ideas and give ideas", as the well-abused middle school slogan promotes.  In order to prepare them for a future of success and fulfillment, students need to be armed and equipped for a technologically obsessed world.