Is Google making us smarter?

 

Is Google making us smarter?

Both of the articles were very interesting to me. When I read “Is Google Making us Stupid” I wasn’t shocked…”the last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.” I think today too many kids have “fake” ADD. What I mean by this that is this…Kids are so distracted by multiple things all the time that when they are asked to do something for a long period of time, they don’t how to do it so they go crazy…they are labeled as having ADD, when in fact, a lot of us have it. I call it being bored and pumped up on a crappy diet.

I think all of this technology is pointing kids in a direction where they fail to learn how to be still… Jesus tells us to “be still” and listen to him on a regular basis. How on earth will kids these days do that if they are constantly plugged in? It is impossible! It is great that we have technology at our fingertips, but we still need to teach our children the basics. I have many students who have never been camping in the outdoors. I mean, what parent does that to a kid? Never been camping? Are you kidding? Nature is so much more gratifying to me than technology will ever be. I had one student tell me that he went camping once with his family (hated it), and one time with all of his friends (hated it too). I asked him why and he told me because he couldn’t use his phone and computer.

I am not trying to bash the technology side here at all because I believe technology “can” help us learn things faster, but I think too many kids are plugged into technology all the time that they are missing out.

Educational Question (s)

 

It is obvious that today’s technology is not the same as it was when we were kids.  I can remember that in Jr. High I had a computer class where we would write programs using DOS…I don’t think anyone even remembers that anymore.  I remember in high school that if you even had a walkman to listen to, you must be rich.  Kids back in the day never really depended on videos or music to entertain themselves, or used the web to communicate.  I was stimulated by just hanging out with my friends, or playing sports.  I rarely ever watched TV, and browsing the web wasn’t a culture thing yet.

Now days every kid seems to be “wired” every minute of the day.  They say they feel disconnected, or lost without their phones.  I asked a few of my kids what they would do if their parents took away their cell phones, myspace, or facebook accounts.  Their reactions were startling because they thought their lives were going to end.  Their culture is so much different than ours.  Their social acceptance is not just face to face anymore, it is almost all online.  It seems that their main form of communication is online because they feel like they can type out all their feeling and just hit send.  It seems that they are more apt to talk about all their feelings online, even private things that shouldn’t be made public.

So dealing with education, should we use technology in the classroom? Studies have shown that technology in the classrooms has actually helped students.  Some professors say it helps them stay stimulated when they would otherwise be bored and zoning out.  Other studies have shown that students today are always doing more than one thing at a time.  Like they would be listening to music, browsing you tube, checking facebook, all while doing their research paper.  The kids say they are great at multi tasking.  Research is showing that all this milti tasking is creating a kid with a short attention span, making reading a long novel, or writing an essay a serious problem.  So is this a serious issue if we are considering bringing in more technology in the classroom?  Will technology distract kids more than if there wasn’t technology?  Can we use technology in a way that will enhance our lessons.  Can technology really help our kids?  Would bringing in technology be the answer, or should we radically change our teaching style to something different than what they have been used to all these years?

Change vs Continuity
I grew up in the in-between stages of the Digital Immigrants/Natives. Two years ago, before I started teaching I would tell you that I am a Digital Native. After being around my high school students I realized I am not up to speed at all. I mean, why do they always have to be stimulated by their ipods whenever they have to go to the bathroom. How can they listen to me with one ear while listening to music in another? Is that even possible? I tried it and it was actually hard. These last two years has really opened my eyes as to how much stimulus with technology our kids are getting each day. I mean, I have friends who I once in a while will play video games for a few hours straight, but I feel wiped out when I am done. My students can play for longer hours while texting, face booking, tweeting, listening to ipods, and doing their homework all at the same time. Well maybe not the homework part.

Prensky’s first article was interesting, but I heard it before. His second article I found very interesting because it had facts! There are actually studies that prove that our student’s brains are different than ours because of the technology they grew up with. “Children raised with the computer ‘think differently from the rest of us. They develop hypertext minds. They leap around. It’s as though their cognitive structures were parallel, not sequential.’” I like how he touched on the fact that attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, but it is due to the environment of the classroom. They are bored!

“The cognitive differences of the Digital Natives cry out for new approaches to education with a better fit.” Prensky then goes on to discuss how educators should try game-based teaching. I totally agree with this approach, but I feel that this game-based learning style is still in the hiding. I have no clue as to what company even makes “quality” games for a math class. If I did, I would have bought it the day I started teaching. I agree with everything that Prensky talks about in his articles, but I don’t think change will happen fast until the companies who make the games really try to market themselves to all teachers. They could do free demos at schools nation wide of what you can do in the classroom to get the Digital Immigrants to get on board with this new wave of learning. They need to get their product in the hands of the struggling educators.

My goals for this class is simple, I want to learn how to incorporate technology in my classroom. Not just any technology, but technology that will excite students to come to class every day. I want my students to be excited coming to math class! So far I have taken two other classes besides this one (and one on Wednesday) and I have had to create some kind of web site and a blog site that I am a little overwhelmed with which one I should use. I want to pick one that will be the most effective for next year.

I consider myself to be pretty technology savvy, but when it comes to using it in the classroom; I feel that I lack creativity. I am hoping that I can learn good techniques in this class that will help me better prepare my class for next year.

I know last week we were asked the question if we as teachers should change if our students are changing, and after thinking about it for a few days I think that all teachers need to adapt in some way or another. ~~Ryan

Welcome Parents

Welcome to TOHS   The first day of school I handed out a syllabus that explains everything your students will be doing this year.  I asked them to show you and have you sign it so if you have not, please get it from them.  Basically it reviewed my grading scale and what materials are needed for te class.  If you ever need to get in contact with me please email me at rthompson@conejo.k12.ca.us.  If you ever need an update on how your student is doing please ask!!!

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Welcome Students

Welcome students to the blog portal.   I hope you had a great summer off.  My name is Mr Thompson and I am a math and ETHOS teacher as well as a soccer coach.  Over the summer my baby girl was born and she is just starting to roll over…yeah!!