After reading “Outside Interests,” I found a connection to the Alvermann chapters that recently read. In this article, a boy named Randy Hererra describes a disconnect between his life at home and at school. Hererra states, “When I step out of school, I have a pretty high-tech life,[…] When I step in school, I feel like I’m not me anymore. I have to jump into this whole old-fashioned thing where everything is restricted.” As teachers, we must accept that technology is an integral par of our students’ lives. In the Alvermann articles, the fact that students live in two worlds—the school and the home world—completely limits our ability to get through to them. We are doing our students an injustice by prohibiting them from using a classroom computer for research or blocking sites in schools.
Another connection between this article and the Alvermann articles is the idea of the implied teacher and the implied student or learner. The article states, “Many teachers are not comfortable with technology and need meaningful time devoted to teaching them how to use tools.” With all of the research and information about how essential technology is to the global economy and the lives of our students, it amazes me that teacher are not willing to let their students inform them of new technologies. As educators, we must let the students take the reigns of their own learning and bring the technology they use at home into the classroom.
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As I wrote in my blog this week, I feel the same way, I use technology all the time outside of class, but inside of the classroom I never use it. I have my iPod and the dock for that. My laptop and cell phone I use ALL the time. My question to you is what would you do with a student like this? Would you integrate some form of technology in your classroom to keep kids interested and wanting to come back? Would you have them do something along the lines of an iMovie or some type of digital project instead of a paper? Just wondering...
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