As technology evolves, and the need for new forms of education arise, new plans and ideas are always being created. Ten years ago, in my middle school's classroom, we were sitting in the rigid desk-chair combos in uniform lines where we were chastised for moving them anywhere out of line. We had beaten up textbooks that had the infamous "Issued to Michael Jackson, Given: Black; Returned: White" written in the front chart along with the "turn to page 82, now go to 93" scrawled across pages. When I went to my first middle school in Wellington, CO, last Spring, I saw that desk-chairs were all but obsolete in classrooms, and replaced with milk crates, exercise balls, stools, etc. The textbooks are still old, but now they have access to personal laptops to conduct the periods online where before it'd just be an overstocked binder with papers falling from the covers. In the ten years that it took me to get to college, middle school has drastically changed since the days of extreme no nonsense attitudes, and uniformity in rows. In Future Ready Learning, the section of technology touches on this aspect of introducing new ideas and resources into a classroom. One of the major things I have noticed is how iPad driven schools have become. Personally, I see them as nothing more than a nuisance to education as kids constantly play games during class. Part of this can come from the goal that's set where educators will be supported by technology that can connect them to people, and resources, where they can become empowered and inspire them to teach more effectively. However, we need to stop and think about whether we should do something or whether we did it because we could. In terms of how technology has gone, iPads are thought of as more entertainment than education compared to laptops, but educators have connections to Apple to receive used items and recycle the items. It's helpful, and a great trade-off, but it would be more effective to collect laptops (PC, Chromebook, or MacBook) to conduct student learning as they are not built around entertainment. A quick Google search provided an interesting article that is literally called "What Is the Purpose of an iPad?" on the site: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-ipad-55278.html where it highlights the capabilities of the device in a business scenario, but focuses more on the uses that what could hinder it. It was interesting to see how they applied the uses of the iPad as a simple business management tool with Facebook and Twitter, but they did little to touch on the cons iPads create. Future Ready Learning tends to focus more on how technology can benefit the educator versus the students too. In the second section, about the integration of technology, there are multiple examples on how technology can be used to benefit the way a teacher leads and teaches a class. One such sub-section is titled "Educators can collaborate far beyond the walls of their school." because teachers can use internet outlets to talk with educators outside of their own district. This is a beneficial resource for the teachers because they can get that feedback, but it feels like they can just go and go and go for days gathering up this information without really bringing any back to the classroom. It's possible, and I've seen examples, but knowing how people can think too big it can backfire and they become absorbed by interacting with others online.
As long as the teacher can conduct the classroom with the technology being used, it is possible for it not to be abused by the possibility of games. One such practice would be to just say technology won't be used today, and not be seen at all, but in the field of art, technology is used constantly to find references and look up information. It's also a problem because not all art is digital, so there may not be a way to conduct class through the iPad or laptop resulting in a Schrodinger's Cat scenario--the students are both researching and gaming at the same time. I think that it is important to look more at how the students can benefit from the integration of technology rather than how it can benefit teachers. We'll being using the new apps and trends, but the question is if these new toys really help the student populace or if it is just a shiny object distracting them. As a personal example, my high school was one of the first ones to integrate iPads, and it was a resounding disaster the first year. It's like the teachers honestly thought we wouldn't use the tablets for games, and would use them for educational purposes. 8 out of 10 students were on their iPads playing games rather than using them as they were expected to. There were a lot of apps given to us to conduct education practices with, but some teachers didn't even use them or just used them passively. The iPad became a digital binder that was cluttered with stuff over being utilized and organized for the class. Looking back on it now, it feels more like a toy for the teachers to play with, and try to use over utilizing it as an actual teaching tool. In terms of my classroom, depending on the medium of art I will be placed in, technology will be used slightly or relied upon like water. In a studio based classroom where the main medium is paper, canvas, or clay, technology should not be very present as an iPad is not going to create an image with your paint brush. Although, there are programs and apps available to be used for digital painting, drawing, and sculpting; however, those may not be permitted as forms of end products. In a graphic design setting, computers are everything and anything in that department. It will be dependent on the medium I am teaching, and how it can be applied to technology. It may be where it's only used for writing artist statements or uploading to an online portfolio in traditional medias. If that's the case, then it will be easy to watch what is going on with people using iPads or PCs. In digital media, it will be ten times harder to tell whether they are working, gaming, or researching unless you walk around and check on how they are doing. Between the two medias, there is no real middle ground that can be found because one doesn't have to rely on technology whereas the other was created through technology.
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This past week has been pretty exciting in terms of what was passed on to us. During this time, we were given a crash course on the function and use of SmartBoards, and that what we learned in five minutes took others three weeks because of how tech savvy we are.
A bit of clarification on the SmartBoards, these tools work similarly to how a whiteboard is presented on the wall of a classroom. The difference is that this functions as a large wall tablet via a projector and advanced screen. Teachers and students are then able to tap icons on the screen, use pen tools to create digital marks, and even create interactive activities based around the SmartBoard's functions. SmartBoards were just the start of things that we learned; following that we were shown several classroom conductors that could be used for presentations. One of these sites was called Pear Deck where teachers could create a presentation room for everyone to follow along with on computers or tablets. This ensures that students will be on the right slide as the lesson progresses. It also allows for students to interact on slides where the teacher has created interactive pieces for live feedback on where everyone is. Following up with conducting a digital classroom, we learned more about how virtual reality and augmented reality can play key factors in the classroom. One of the activities that has been set up is a virtual escape room where students must collaborate and figure out what the codes are. This can be used as a reward or as a moment to immerse the students in a lesson where it is viable. Virtual Reality may not have activities that are applicable quite yet for your field but it may help shake things up from being in a classroom. Augmented reality isn't as popular as virtual reality is nowadays, but it can be a cheaper option depending on whether tablets are available or if the students have their own smart phones. Rather than immersing someone in a completely simulated space, augmented reality creates a digital object that interacts with the physical world. Much to how the popular Pokémon GO functions, devices will place a 3-d object in the real world using the camera's field of view. As a functional tool, augmented reality can be used to set up a classroom activity where students use devices with corresponding apps to investigate different stations. The best part about this is how you don't have to make room for physical objects and how multiple students can look at the same screen to see what is happening. With the constant increase in technology, it will become increasingly important to make sure students have access to it. If they don't know how to use it, then we have not been doing our jobs as teachers in making sure they know more than just the content. We're training them for jobs yet to be created and technology that hasn't been invented, so we have to do our part to prepare them for as much as we can. |
Joel SchreinerBorn on December 17th, 1996, Joel Schreiner entered the Electronic Art program at CSU right out of High School. From there he decided to set his eyes on becoming an educator alongside an illustrator and concept artist. Archives
December 2018
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