Dear Fellow Sojourner,
There is a vision in my head of every student that I teach in my career after the morning bell rings in my classroom having a computer screen in front of them. They log into their personal universal site and start working at the games present for them. The first thing they do is navigate the typing scenario for the day in game format. I set it up the night before to model an earthquake scenario which is the unit study for the day's science lesson. The students move their character around the obstacle course set out before them using their accuracy and words per minute in typing skills. If their character survives the earthquake scenario then they can move onto the next challenge.
The vision moves on as I show each student his or her grades for the quarter on a graph in their own personal site. I edited the grades using my moderator power and the grades show up on their sites. Only they, their parents, and myself can access their site so the viewings are completely private. I can show them using visuals and graphs where they are academically day to day. They can see where they are at and where they need to go. There can and will be no excuse for not knowing about bad grades descending upon their heads.
Nice vision. For me. Likely to remain so for two reasons. Number one, while NET-T and NET-S (National Educational Technology Standards - Teachers - Students) claim that these sorts of things ought to be a reality, schools rarely have the funding to develop these kinds of extensive technology networks in elementary classrooms, let alone train teachers how to use them. And number two, I am not very 'tech savvy' myself. I will need the training. I'm already behind by national standards. I don't know how to use programs that I will need to even preform basic tasks let alone have polished skills that I can teach to the younger generation.
For my vision to become a reality, I need to stop day dreaming and get to work.
Great visioning and thinking Clarissa. If we think of developmental application of the standards, you may be exactly where a preservice teacher belongs.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the reality of what exists in many schools falls far short of these standards. And the standards do give us something to aim for.
It is true that most schools lack the funding to keep up with technical advances. This class has been very eye opening to me in terms of what I know and what I need to know to be prepared to teach this future generation of students. When I went to school electric typewriters were the big latest techno gadget and tape recorders!!! I've come a long way, but I have a long way to go!
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