Living in a Technological World
Students versus Teachers
I
can fully attest to the fact that my students, seventh graders, have far
different views on technology than I do. Students seem to only want to use
technology for social purposes, rather than the millions of other ways that could
support them emotionally, physically, and mentally.
I
understand there is a time and place for technology, but there is also a time
and a place where a student needs to be able to do something as basic as
looking up a word in the dictionary. When a student asks me to use their phone
to Google a word, I have to tell them a short story about how Google isn’t
always the know it all. I have them think about the historical Great Depression
and the crash of the stock market in 1929. When I explain to them by typing “depression”
into Google that they are not going to receive information on the
industrialized world of the past, but rather a mood disorder and the reasons
for it.
It
baffles me how different our views are in so many ways. When I play a game on
my phone, it is normally centered around something with words or a way to
challenge my mind: crossword puzzles from the New York Times, Bookworm, or
others of that type. My students finish an assignment and want to play Crazy
Eights or group pool, neither of which require more than ten brain cells at any
point in time. While David Krathwohl and Lorin Anderson, the creators of the
modernized Bloom’s Taxonomy, were right to change the nouns to verbs, I do not
fully agree that create should be the main cogwheel of the six features.
Students are not creating anymore, rather they are following pre-made games,
applications, or assignments, while using the other five portions of the
pyramid sparingly.
Let
me explain. I work in a district where we are limited on funds for extra
technology in the school, let alone some of my students don’t even have
internet at home. We are in a half and half, where half of my students have
access to anything technological they could ever need and some do not have the
slightest idea how to use a computer or iPhone. With that being said, use of
technology in the classrooms at my school can be more of a hassle than a
helper. While I completely agree with Anderson and Krathwohl’s idea that
creating is part of the higher order thinking skills, it is sad to see some
school districts and schools that are struggling with technology even in the
lower order thinking skills department. I am expected to use technology in the
classroom, while incorporating Bloom’s, but I am not given the tools.
When I turn
calming, classical music on in class, their immediate response is to ask if
they can take out their Air Pods and listen to their own “good” music because
what I have on is not acceptable. At one point in time, I even tried a mini
experiment. Guardians of the Galaxy, a well-known movie seen by most of my
students, has an amazing soundtrack to it. Without prompting them to what I was
going to play throughout the class that day, I had numerous complaints about
how this is for “old people” and no one listens to it any more. After a song or
two, a student would speak up, wide-eyed by saying that they recognized a song
from somewhere. That’s when the listening really kicked in, and, low and
behold, they figured out it was from one of their favorite movies. The problem
is, they are so stuck in their own little world, that they do not try to even
accept what is new or different to them. Creativity is not so creative any
more.
The
worst part about technology in the classroom, for me, is that students have this
undying need to have their phone in their hands or pockets, as if it is going
to magically disappear and never been seen again. I have a plastic shoe rack
from The Container Store where my students place their phones in at the
beginning of class. In the beginning of the year, it was pulling teeth and
nails with them to get them to replace their phones with a pencil and
dictionary. Once the routine was ingrained in their head, it became much
easier.
Generational Gap
The
biggest difference in students nowadays and when I was a student was what was
at our fingertips. Yes, I had a cell phone, but it was made for one thing only,
to make calls. All six or so of my numbers (three of which were family
members), were to be used for emergencies. I had a phone in middle school. The
middle school students nowadays have a computer in their pocket. And, instead
of using this computer to benefit them, they use it to goof off or work their
way around the system.
I
teach in the same district as I attended, Fort Bend ISD, and have seen a
drastic change in the way things have evolved over the years. We were never
allowed to have our phones with us, but we also had full access to computer
labs. At my current school, all computers have been taken away (almost 50), and
they have left us with laptops that work only a portion of the time and an iPad
cart that is always checked out. There is no schedule as to who can check out
what or how often they can check it out, basically leaving it as a first come
first serve, and most of us get left in the dust.
Now,
don’t get me wrong, I have seen my students do some pretty incredible things on
their phones, but when it comes to a computer, it may be one of the saddest
things I have ever witnessed. I remember being four or five years old and
asking my parents to “type” on the computer. I did nothing more than hit the
keyboard keys over and over again in a Word document, but it was the beginning
of an application that I would be using for the rest of my life. My students
didn’t know how to indent, without pressing the space bar over and over again,
and some did not know how to even save a document. Their excuse? My phone
automatically saves everything for me.
Understanding
is different than remembering. To remember, one must understand, and with that,
students must apply their knowledge in one way or another. If given the chance,
I would teach everything from the start, without any technology, and then move
onto a program to help evaluate where the student is then at.
Reframing Technology in the Classroom
To
me, Bloom’s has always had the right message, but after seeing the revised
version, I gravitated and tended to grasp it a little better than the outdated
noun version. I particularly liked the Bloom’s revised digital taxonomy map, in
Churches’ article, and the use of multiple, descriptive terms for each of the
six steps in the pyramid (Churches, 2008, page
5). While many would just be considered synonyms, sometimes that is all
one needs to better understand what needs to be done to teach someone
something.
In
all of our professional development courses, we are introduced to new words,
acronyms, and ways of assessing information, but it all comes back to one
single idea, Bloom’s. Out of all of the visual representations I have seen, the
Bloom’s revised digital taxonomy map hits the nail right on the head. As stated
in Churches’ article, “learning can start at any point” (Churches, 2008, page
4), not all students have to begin from the same step in the ladder. I think,
as people, we forget that we have more gifted students than others and that
they can pop in and turn some of the cogwheels for others, in place of
educators, at times. Simply put, some students learn better from peers, some
learn better from educators, some learn better from technology, and some learn
best from all of the above.
When
a child sees that they are not the only one with a specific learning style,
they immediately become more comfortable in the classroom when they can
properly use their style with the permission of the teacher. I have had to
cross a few boundaries and try new things over my years of teaching, but I have
found that when you let a child be creative and cross into unchartered
territory, the results are usually amazing.
Since working in
my current school for the last four years, I have had mixed feelings on
technology in the classroom, specifically because of the reasons listed above.
I find it hard to integrate in because of lack of funds, equipment, and items
necessary to create said applications or games for students to use. These
articles have truly opened my eyes on how to use technology in a meaningful
way, even if there isn’t a tablet or computer in every child’s hand.
App of Choice
At
my school, in particular, I know that when we introduce a new application or
program into our school, it is a district wide initiative that pays for every
school to have it. This has its perks but it also has its downfalls. If every
school has an application, all of the students and educators become engaged and
comfortable with it, but then everyone is using the same application without
any of their own creativity put into it.
If
I were to go out on my own and request the use of a new application, I would
start by gathering as much information about the app as possible. I would list
the pros and cons, compare it to other similar apps, and describe why I chose
that one over the others. I would ask my principal if I could test the app with
a few teachers volunteers before moving onto a larger crowd. If the app was successful
with my tester group, I would then speak with my principal again about
integrating the app into the library itself, on a much larger scale.
What
I love about my district is how open they are to integrating new ideas into the
work place. If my principal was unsure of the idea, I would seek the opinion of
employees at other schools or higher management, all without overstepping any
boundaries. It is always best to ask around and see what others have found
effective, making this extra research to present to your principal.
The
best way to go about asking for something new is to be honest, show all of the
facts, and come at it with confidence and a smile. If you were hired for the
job, it was done for a reason, and educators need to be able to express their
opinion on when things are working or when they can be tweaked.
Technological Foundation
After
all is said and done, technology is not going away. In fact, soon enough, I can
see every child being outfitted with a computer or tablet of their own instead
of using pen and paper. While I see nothing wrong with that, we, as educators,
need to be able to stay ahead of the game and move in that direction as well.
If you look around the world today, there are kids who are two and under who
can work an iPad better than my grandmother can. However, that is the
generational gap, as well as the way that one learned at a period of time. If
we hold back technology in the classroom or library now, we are setting up our
students for disaster because of the sole fact that we are not going to regress
from technology any time soon.
The Future is in Librarian’s Hands
Libraries
will never go away, whether they be a tangible building, an archive in the
basement of a destroyed building, or if it becomes solely based online.
Everyone needs a form of information that is easy to access and well known by
an individual, a librarian. Librarians are the keys that unlock the students’
minds. Without a librarian, people of all ages would be lost in a world of
unlimited information. A librarian is important for those reasons and so many
more. While, hopefully not any time soon, I can see tangible libraries becoming
less and less popular, we will still need people to guide us. Librarians need
to be up to date with technology and applications just as much, if not more so,
than the general public if they are going to keep up with the ever changing
world around them. Libraries will never go away, but the way information is
projected will change.
Bibliography
1. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Website
& Video
Puentedura, R. (2017, August 30).
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/blooms-digital-taxonomy
2. Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s Blog
Post
Puentedura, R. (2014, September,
24). SAMR and Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Assembling the Puzzle. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/samr-and-blooms-taxonomy-assembling-the-puzzle
3. Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy-
Churches
Edorigami (2008, March
18). Bloom’s and ICT tools. Available October 2008, from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom's+and+ICT+tools
4. Kathy
Schrock’s Guide to Everything
Schrock, K. (2011, July, 10). Bloomin’ Apps. Retrieved from https://www.schrockguide.net/bloomin-apps.html
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