I totally agree with the "Wacky Kids" video, but I have very little insight into how to fix the problem in my classroom.
Mark Pesce placed the problem square in my face, but then left me with no real answers. I have to admit that he's right when he says the "hidden curriculum in the 20th century was timeliness and orderliness." As a student, I got that message. As a teacher, I'm trying to get the same message across to my kids. But, for many kids, it's just not working.
So, if Pesce is right — if the "hidden curriculum in the 21st century needs to be teaching them [students] focus and how to control their hyperconnectivity for their best benefit" — then I am still a 20th century teacher. Somehow I need to move my teaching methods into the new century.
In my classroom, I feel like learning is taking place when my kids are disciplined and in order. Am I wrong? Can there really be a way to do as Pesce says and "accept the hyperconnectivity and figure out how to use it, rather than discard it"?
It looks like I have a lot to learn from this class. I'm looking forward to gaining new insights. I want to open my mind to the possibility of change in my classroom. And yet, how will my coworkers judge the change? Could this be a dangerous move? Can I still keep control of my students, but give them the freedom of communication that they depend on throughout the rest of their 'real' lives outside of the classroom? Will they actually learn the material in that atmosphere? We'll see . . .
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I agree and apprectiated what you had to say about your reaction to "Those Wacky Kids". I also want to learn more about how to "focus" the "hyperconnectivity" and utilize it in our classrooms. We need to make our school systems relavent to the world we are all living in.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do have some concerns and major hurdles with this world. The classroom is broader and has become intertwined. It will become impossible for me (as a teacher, Christian educator) to step in when I need to. It is the same with parents whose lives are now becoming increasingly busy and stressful. There is no guidance, supervision or council. It is a world that “seems” to the kids as unpoliced, a place where they could say and do what they wish. They are increasingly bold behind this technology, but yet their words and decisions carry so much weight with their “co-existence”. Texting, My Space or Facebook are all places where students live most of the time and for a majority of them they are places that are unwatched by their parents or adults.
I’m excited to find out more about strategies and techniques that can set up a “focused’ and “controlled” environment where interconnectivity can be had with the presence and guidance of teachers and parents. But most importantly the presence and guidance of our Creator and Savior needs to be closer than the “co-existence” of the rest of the world.
You have actually found the best answer for all of us — PRAYER.
ReplyDeleteWe can't do anything unless God blesses us. The longer I teach, the more I realize that the times when I feel like a good teacher are the times that I have been "inspired" by God's leading.
So, if we keep this subject in prayer, He will give us the insights we need, moment by moment.
But, in a busy classroom, we have to be dedicated to that mindset. Otherwise . . . well, you know what distractions can do!
We need to remember PRAYER first. Have God lead us step by step into how HE wants us to use tech in the classroom. I feel it will be somewhere in a happy middle between what is presented in the material and what we are doing. We must show the children JESUS first and formost. Must teach them to go to HIM and ask for guiding. If they see us do that, they will learn to follow. They need to know that not everything --even "good" stuff is desirable. They also need the discipline of the classroom from our times.
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