Snap, crackle and pop!!!!

I stumbled across Alissa’s little post on Torment Technology it got me thinking about technology..It is great, fun, entertaining and creative. However like all things it does go wrong and when it goes wrong “snap, crackle, pop” its all gone!

And there are never any guarenttes with anything, her post got me thinking if that could happen to one person imagine what could happen to a whole class, and how disruptive that could be?

“I will leave you with this thought, if technology is something we are persuing to catch up with, yet we are the designers of our own creations, why then are we struggling to keep up with it?” Such an intersting and thought provoking question, and i thought about it and the only real reason that i came up with was technology is always moving new things are being created, better things and as we master one thing a new thing comes out which expands on the previous, it all seems like a little race. But when technology does work i believe it can be pretty amazing.

I want to learn!

Engage meI came across an interesting post by Lauren, she found a you tube video. This video has the students voice on what they percieve learning to hold. Their main arguement was Engagement and they way they were engaged, and this was through technology. This video was an awakening of the way students learn, it also opened the doors for questioning the society that we will be teaching in.

The video showed stastics of teachers who use technology and those who don’t and to be honest i wasn’t shocked to see such high figures that don’t use technology, and the children are suffering. This only retierates the idea of incorporating technology into the classroom, the children want to learn, they want to create and they want to be challeneged however without incorporating technology into the classroom we aren’t exactly meeting their needs.

Lauren states an interesting point she sheds light on the idea that student teachers are being taught technology at university but what happens to those teachers who aren’t brought up with technology? Does that mean that those children miss out? It is amazing to see how much technology is being used in and out of school, we need to equip our students to meet the everyday needs of society both technically and academically, and technology has the answer to this.

On prac every child had a computer and all work was done on the computer via the smartboard and i have never seen students so enthuastic to learn. They loved the interaction, they loved the freedom of creating things, i saw so many student games that were made by them and it blew me away. Children want to learn there is no question there, we as teachers need to meet their needs.

Computers transforming the way we learn…

Can computer games transform learning? Interesting question isn’t it? I just read an article by Keri Fracer titles “Could computer games help to transform the way we learn?

Now computer games are fun and engaging and children absolutely adore them. I know for a fact my sister comes home from school and the first thing she is on is the computer, and not doing her homework. This only highlights that children much rather be playing a game then doing their homework. So it only makes sense that we should be making classrooms this engaging so children will want to learn.

Most people would rather disagree with this statement and I can see why learning is always put down to writing essays and so forth, so children will turn to books in protest and this is one of Keri Fracer arguments she also points out a very good point this being does the game actually meet the syllabus requirements. And that is a very good point, children just can’t be playing computer games and not learning anything it defeats the purpose of education. Another point that was nicely raised was the issue of violence, now computer games have been at the heart of the “violence” issue debate for as long as I remember with people that believe it is because of these computer games that children are becoming violent, and it’s true a lot of games do have violence in them. However Keri points out that we are teaching them attack strategies. And I guess that largely becomes the teacher’s role as to what games are implemented in the classroom.

I suppose a lot of us focus on the negatives that we are forgetting about the positives games are interactive and children love interactive, but more so games offer this new world to explore fuelling children’s imaginations, they teach literacy, complex variables and problem solving how many times do we play a computer game and have to think about where to go next and what will happen if we do? This proves that games can be used to educate in an exciting way but it is the content of the game we need to worry about…we have to make sure that the content matches what the children should be learning

The article exposes us to some games that highlight the educational aspects these include sim city- suitable for H.S.I.E, DoomEd students learn about radiations and chemistry and racing academy this includes making, designing and racing cars using engineering principles. Maybe if games like these could be introduced in the classroom children may feel motivated to complete their work. The great thing is that games are hands on and interactive catering for children’s interests and also learning styles.

Facer,K. (2005) Could computer games transform the way we learn?Is the future of learning playful? Vision,1, pp1-4