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This article is very interesting as it talks about top ten issues that researchers on developing countries have on the new future of digital interaction - OLPC. I thing everyone in the classroom should really take a look it because I know that have been many people blogging about this new computer and have had many different ideas and viewpoints. I do not believe that this article is meant to destroy the entire idea of this computer but more of a way to realize the problems and to perhaps find a way in resolving them. To be very honest I am not the greatest fan of this new way technology of the third world countries. I really think that they could be using some sort of nourishment rather then this technology.
None the less going back to this article, it states that the official website of this computer mentions that this new technology is field tested and validated from the poorest and most remote parts of the world. However there ten top reasons that proves the statement to be false.
Then ten reasons are focused around, the focus of OLPC, readability, infrastructure, not all learning can be done using OLPC, lack of content, keyboards, scalability, ergonomics, wrong problem, and the community of learning vs. the cult of North American individual.
For the keyboard, it raises the question of students being able to use a mouse and keyboard when they are so use to using a slate. It goes on to suggest that when one wants to improve something they should work with what is already there. I suggest mention was having touch sensitive slates or digital blackboards.
How about teachers being able to gauge if the students are understanding a new concept? If they all have their own little screens it makes it difficult for teachers to notice because all eyes are the screens. Before children looked at the blackboard while the teacher was teaching. It would be difficult for the teacher to teach on the blackboard and then have to transfer it over on to the computer.
It is also easy to send the computers over to the children to use but the question is who will provide the teachers with enough training so that they can help the children with this new technology.
What about environment? Some children are learning outside sitting on the floor with no tables. Where would they put these laptops? Having to place it on your lap for a long period of time a can become very uncomfortable in turn effecting their learning. It also becomes a distraction because they would have never seen something so sophisticated. There are many other good points that have been brought up in the article. Everyone may not agree with all of them but they are at least good to think about them.
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The article I chose for this week’s blogging is a study on the relationship between the developmental level of children and the ability to interact with digital technology. These days’ children are exposed to technology earlier then even books. They often observe their parents working on the computer or using cell phones. How often so you see parents reading a book. At the same time computers are fun, exciting, colourful, and animated, especially compared to books. “Early exposure and availability of digital environments, both at home and school, make addressing design considerations for young children imperative.” (p1).
Children use computers before they even know how read is true if you really give it a thought. A lot of daycares have computers in the classroom starting from the preschool level. There are so many computer games. Even learning how to read is done through the use of computers. I am not sure if this is the right direction. For learning how to read there are so many other electronic tools that are in place. For example leap frog, what happened to read the old fashioned way. Novels are not going to be animated.
This study really makes you think about at what developmental level does a child need to be at before exposed to digital technology? Is there a level? And does children being expose to technology at such an early age effect the development of a child?
The paper outlines what child development professionals have outlined as a criteria when creating new digital technology. Some of the guidelines include:
- Support child as a unique individual
- Be child controlled
- Be open –ended
- Encourage exploration, experimentation and risk taking
- Balance familiarity and novelty
However, the study indicates, though the criteria’s will be met the use of it is still reliant on the readiness of the children. If children learn through observation then how are we to stop children to be exposed before they are ready to be? They can be encouraged not to but again that responsibility falls on the parents.
Even the most excellent piece of technology will not be appropriate for all children. I think that technology is often pushed further then its purpose. Technology should be used as a tool and an answer to everything. It should eliminate human interaction at all.
The article sums the study up by saying, “An appropriate digital environment provides a vehicle that can take a child further than he or she may travel unassisted. Responsible and well-considered design an content choices in keeping with a child’s developmental needs provide the basis of positive digital environments for children.” (p 8).
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Developmentally Appropriate Digital Environments for Young Children
Linda Z Cooper. Library Trends.
The below link is a blurb about music and the importance of children creating music. http://www.little-folks-music.com/philos.h
This article talks about the importance of having music in children's lives from an early age and allowing them to learn different kinds of music and to encourage the use of music to express and explore. The article also states a few benefits of providing different types of musical activities in children's everyday lives. Lastly it touches on how teachers often fear of including music in the classrooms as they are not good singers. I can relate to that but after learning about song child and reading this article it made me realize that it is not important if you as a teacher know how to sing. In fact it is important that children are exposed to different technological software to be able to create and make their own music. The idea of music just being there has taken over in this society. People are forgetting their own talents. Children can benefit in many ways if they get together with their peers and explore different things that they can create, music being one of them.
Imagine children making their own nursery rhymes and making it into a tradition. When beginning to do my song child assignment I wanted to play around with a cultural or a song that has been passed by tradition, however the problem was that nobody remembered the words to any of the songs. Everything has been replaced with published music that is copyright. I think that that music that is passed on is more meaning full or music that is created by children themselves. For example, a song about trees; would it not be nice if the children made it that way expressing what they thought about trees instead of the teacher?
I feel that the importance of music is being neglected and the children are the ones losing the most. Here is so much technology out there for children to explore with and connect with other through. Children can have the opportunity to communicate with children across the globe
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Chapter 10 & Epilogue
Technology is scarier then I first thought it was when I initially started readying this text. There so much that I learnt through reading the textbook but to be honest I don’t know how I am ever going to remember all it plus more as technology will keep on changing. I really fear the idea of doing the song child assignment. How am I going incorporate everything that I have learnt in this course and put it together? It has taken me so much time just to begin to know the basics of the different labs we have done. I think the best approach right now for me is to take things a step at a time and ask for a lot of assistance.
Getting back on track, I found chapter ten very interesting especially the section of creating rubrics on the computer. I think that it is a brilliant skill to learn. It would really helpful to teachers as it will save so much time doing paper work and keeping organized. I really wanted to touch upon the characteristics of a good rubric mention in the text:
1) In an Effective Rubric, All Important Elements Are Included
2) In an Effective Rubric, Each Element is Unidimensional
3) In an Effective Rubric, Ratings are Distinct, Comprehensive, and Descriptive
4) An Effective Rubric Communications Clearly With Both Students and Parents
5) An Effective Rubric Provides Rich Information About the Multiple Aspects of the Performance and Avoids and Temptation to Create a Contrived Summary Score
Rubrics being on paper or on the computer need to go by these characteristics. All of them hold equal importance but I feel that the fourth characteristic really stands out as I feel that it can very important as the underlying point of a rubric is so that performance can be improved, therefore important that all parties understand it. Children need to understand what they are asked. This is a little off track but I remember in one of my school placements the teacher would ask the children what level they felt that should get for each subject. I think that it is important for students to be part of their own evaluation process. I remember my cousin coming home with his essay and it had a rubric attached to it showing his mark. The rubric made no sense and I didn’t understand how the teacher gave him the mark that he got. I asked him if the teacher had explained the rubric and responded, No! T hat really disturbed me but I didn’t take further action. Every action has a consequence.
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“Computer use may not help students”
The title of the blog is a title of an article by Keith Bonnel from the National Post dating back a couple weeks ago. My father brought to my attention this article which I found very interesting. I would have tried to look it up and added a link but unfortunately I am writing while I am snowed in, can’t even open the doors to my house. I have also lost all connection to the world because due to the storm my internet, cable and telephone service is experiencing difficulties. Nonetheless I will attach the link hopefully when I post this blog which I hope to be very soon. Wow! How much do we really on technology? Sorry I lied, I do have my cell phone which is running but I never know the storm could effect the connections for that too. I feel so useless. I thought I would take this opportunity to do any catch up work for school but I found that I really needed the internet to do a lot of my assignments. Even most of my weekly readings are online.
Yes back on to what I was hoping to talk about, the article. This article is about question the millions of dollars being spent in school systems to ensure that students have the best access to best technology. However a new report suggests that, “Filling classrooms with computers does not seem to be making students and smarter and may actually be harming the education of younger children.” Does anyone have an opinion on this? I myself feel that it depends on many variables. Don Herbert Krug, a professor of curriculum studies at the University of British Columbia says, “It’s not the computer that makes kids smarter or not smarter, its what they are doing with the technology… computers offer schools the chance not just to augment traditional lessons, but to teach students about things, such as cyber bullying, that have become commonplace in today’s society.” On the other hand a high school teacher states that making student’s computer illiterate could come at the cost of cutting time out teaching basic subjects. It is a very interesting article that states many different opinions form different people in the education field. I really want to know what we future teachers feel about this new research topic and these recent findings.
I think it would be very interesting to get my hands on the full version of the report to see what was studied and the different variables that were looked at. In fact I think the entire class should be interested in see this report and then forming our opinions on it. Jason or anyone else, if you know how to get a hold of the study I would be very interested it. Thanks!
I don’t think I have ever really have gotten such a grade after studying so much for a midterm. I really thought that I was answering the questions correctly as I was looking them up and reading to right off from the text/notes and all the other sources.
I major problem that I came across was that I often used the same window by accident in the web browser as the test was on. I soon as I would realize it I would hit the return to previous page button. This would take me back to my to the test page however all the answers would be erased even though after every answer I had saved the answers. I would have to redo the entire test all over again. This happened a few times. I am not sure if that affected my final results or not.
I am really glad that we have been given the choice of redoing to test. I would be jumping for this opportunity but I am a little apprehensive as I am not sure if it is a good idea as it has been decide that the best score will not be taken. What if I do worse because of the pressure of having to do better but at the same time it would be really nice to have a better mark.
In a way I was glad that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way about the entire test. I do acknowledge that these things sometimes don’t work out as planned and this is the way we all learn. I myself have never participated in a online test nor have I ever had an open book test so this type of test format was really different. However, besides for the results I would have to admit that I really liked it. It may be because I am a visual learner or I may have just preferred it over other ways of testing because it was different. I really think that next year the testing should be the same way with a few changes of course. But building on this being a technological course I feel that it is important to have this time of testing.
I feel whatever decision I make in regards to doing the retest will be for the best and all I can do is hope for the best. I am really glad that at least this opportunity is given to us. I really agree with Jason when he says that this is a learning process for all of us because we are in this together.
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I am already getting nervous about the final project, especially after reading the chapter from the text book. I am not sure if I will be able to create a song and add music and instruments and sounds to it. I am not creative when it comes to things such as this and especially when it comes to do anything with music. I am not much a singer or a fan of listening to music. Yes I do sing songs at daycares but at most times I encourage the children to sing more then me so that way I am not really heard and as for infants, I sing really quietly so that nobody but the child can hear me so it works out. Plus nobody will judge you there; the children are too small to say anything, they will just enjoy any sort of music. I have always wanted to learn new songs and be able to take them to my different placements but I never could because that for sure was not one of my strengths.
It was interesting thinking about some of the questions at the end of the chapter. For example, “How can students be motivated to continue exploring, revising, and refining their designs- to do meaningful iterative design-when their common refrain is, “It works, so I am done.”? I can definitely relate to the student that would say that because I know that I would say something similar to that especially if I weren’t to keen with experimenting with different computer programs. As long as I know the basics and I did something to have completed the task, I would see no need to go further and make more of iterative design. This is the easy way out and I know there are many of me out there that would say that but I feel every time a child reaches the goal the bar of standards should go up so that they have to continue on to explore, revise and refine their design. I also think that this question can also be turned a little to ask how students who have really nice designs and have spent all of time on it help their peers in encouraging them to make more iterative designs. I feel that it is important that children learn from each other and feed off of each other in positive ways.
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I had such a fun time playing around and using wiki. At first I was really scared and nervous because I have never done anything like that before. Let me just say that the instructions were great. They were very detailed and right to the point which really helped me a lot. I had to sit down and tell myself that I can do it and I took it a step at a time. By the time I was finished I felt as if I was on my way of becoming a programmer. With all those little codes to do simple things that in a word document I would have just pressed a button. I now really appreciate the work that programmers put into their work to create all these really nice and user friendly programs.
Through my experiences it seems as though, those children who say for example cannot do math when using paper and pencil will do an excellent job when there are math problems in a computer game. I really think that this brings us back to the importance of having teachers trained in computers. But at the same time it brings us back to the concern of children being on computers for two long. It is absolutely amazing what children can do one the computer. For example chapter three from our textbook, talks about how experimenting with technology can lead to causal reasoning through stimulations, games, and virtual words. This is all great because it is very important reasoning causally can help with making predictions, inferences, give explanations, argue for actions have been taken by providing justification and draw implications. It is the most basic thinking skill but how what is best for children from other different aspects?
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I am not sure how many of you read the article by our Prof. Jason Nolan but for those that have not read it yet I really recommend that you do. He wrote a very interesting article on a major issue that either has affected you or will effect you at some point in your life.
At first while I was reading the article it scared me a bit to know that someone can know everything about you without you even knowing. Everything you do is a piece of the puzzle that creates you. By the end of the article I realized that though it may appear to be scary, there is much more depth that needs to understood. For example what does it really mean to be a hacker?
This article gave readers a look at the idea of hacking when taking a step back. I have now come to the understanding that hacking has its own ‘bad’ stigma to it because of society. The article goes to explain that when one is gotten into your computer then it is not hacking but it is referred to as ‘cracking’ by a hacker.
I went on a mission and asked people who I knew what they thought hacking was. It was interesting to hear that every single person defined hacking as breaking into a computer or network system and looked at hacking as a bad thing.
The last paragraph of the article really gave me a different perspective of social hacking. It compares it to what we do in our everyday lives. “…it is not that different from what we have always done; learn about the world around us using the tools and skills we have at our disposal, and put that knowledge to various ends; be they good or bad.” (pg 36) Hacking is just searching around fro information just like historians but the problems arise with the hackers with what they do with the information at the end. It all boils down to, in simple words the intent of the hacker. That is what the scary and frightening part is. There are many benefits to hacking that can be really be helpful to people but it seems as though it comes with the risk of someone not having the right intentions.
Linking this concept to teaching and children; I can see it as being a very positive thing for both students and us the teachers. We can see that a lot of things in school are now relied on technology and more and more children are using computers. I feel that it can be beneficial to teachers to be able to look over what children are doing and in turn it will help them understand the child better. The way the child thinks, solves problems or what the child likes and dislikes. This can help the teacher help the child learn according their individuals needs. I think that it would really work well with children with special needs.
Does anyone have any thought on this?
Even though the use of technology has its obvious disadvantages, I would have to agree that using technology for communication can be very helpful. As everyone knows, I am not very good with technology but I love the idea of having to communicate using discussion boards especially when I become I teacher. I think it would be neat sharing ideas with teachers from different cities, provinces and countries. I also think that it is important to have children communicate using discussion boards, text messaging, and programs like MSN messenger. At the same time I do not agree with it being there only means of communication. I know that at times I will not call anyone when I can text message them and get what I need and I think back to the times where I would I have to use the phone and call that person. Yes I agree text messaging is convenient but I think it is come to a point where it can become a distraction. Students at school use it all the time during a class lecture, diverting their attention away from what is being taught.
Technology is great but my number one concern still stands to the idea that children spend to much time in front of a screen. If you really look at what technology has to offer, kids they would not even see the need of having to go out with their friends and family and to communicate without technology. The textbook even states that exchanging ideas through discussion boards had its disadvantages as we lose important communication cues such as body language. These are important to maintain. For example, job interviews are usually done face to face which may change in the future but during these times it is important that we have maintained those communication cues. I have witnessed many times that young children are great with using discussion boards, text messaging and many other means of technology but they are not able to talk to you face to face. I have also found that children tend to use a lot of short cuts and slang words when communication through the computer and then have a hard time writing professional messages or emails. In one of my other classes where we are having online discussions the teacher noticed that a lot of the students where not writing according to academic standards.
Just a few weeks ago I was helping my cousin and his friend on a school project. I do not remember what the topic was on but I recall that they had to go on to the internet and research a specific topic, learn about it and understand it to be able to present it to their class.
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