Blog #1: Response to Chapter 1

I was quite surprised to see the differences that technology has made in the students themselves. Sure, I am aware that most students, even in middle school, carry cell phones and are well versed in the internet. But I guess I never realized that all the new technology floating around in the world would actually change the students themselves, as well as how the teachers teach. Most important, to me at least, is the fact that teaching has gone from teacher-centered to student-centered. The students are now the main focus of the classroom. Technology has also allowed teachers to teach to several learning styles using movies, sound clips, group projects (requiring groups to make PowerPoint presentations is quite popular), and more all because of technology. The students who aren’t the best auditory learners now have more of a chance to absorb the material. Students now use all of their senses to learn, as opposed to the traditional single sensory learning that used to occur in classrooms. Instead of simply sitting in a desk and having information delivered to them via the teacher, students are now a part of the information exchange. They can surf the web for information on the topic of the day, read up-to-date newspaper articles from halfway around the world. Arguably the most important change that technology has allowed for is the change from isolated work is now collaborative work. Students can work on homework together in chat rooms, without ever having to leave the house. They can get the opinions of other students from China or Russia through e-mail. They can use interactive websites that make learning math problems fun, or forums that allow kids to discuss books as well as see what their peers have thought of those same books. Technology has made learning more fun for the students, and once all teachers are well versed in such technology, it will make teaching just as fun.
John M. Keller’s ARCS Motivational Model is interesting to me, as a future teacher. Our book tells us that “Keller stressed that even the best designed instructional strategy will fail if students are not motivated to learn,” and I believe that he hit’s the nail on the head. In observing classrooms for my Intro to Education class last semester I saw that those students who seemed uninterested in the class were also those that had no reason to want to learn. Keller says that using “effective techniques” that “stimulate the sense of wonder and maintain interest” will help to effectively capture the learners attention, something Keller says in crucial. In my opinion relevance has the biggest impact on student interest. If a student doesn’t feel that anything you are teaching is relevant to them, then why should they pay attention? Keller says that if the material that you are teaching is relevant to the student, it will increase the motivation in that student to learn. Technology allows teachers to make learning relevant to everyone, because Keller says “digital media utilize(s) technologies that students value”, therefore making it relevant. Challenge/confidence is also important for maintaining student interest. The book says that lessons that are created digitally allow the teacher to control the level of the content, they can also use the lessons to challenge multiple skill levels. Satisfaction/success is Keller’s last section, and very key. “Lessons developed using digital media can be designed to provide feedback that will sustain the desired behavior” which is very interesting to me because that seems to be the hardest thing that teachers face: keeping kids interested in what they are learning.
Since my last blog post, most of what I’ve learned about technology came from chapter 1. I learned that not only are there standards for teachers using technology, there are standards for students and administrators as well. The closest thing to these standards that I can think of that I experienced in school was a typing class I had to take once in middle school and then again my freshman year of high school. Of course college also requires this (thus the reason most of us are in this class). But now they require up to six checkpoints and skill mastering for students, something that I think is very beneficial to the students since our society is starting to depend more and more on technology. Also, the section labeled “Example of How One School Uses Computers” opened my eyes. I was especially interested in the English teacher who was looking into community digital storytelling, and how her interest sparked other teachers to look into it as well. Since I want to be an English teacher, that is something that I could use to help my students be more interested in the material.