Thursday, March 8, 2012

Look at my new black pen



" I usually write on the whiteboard using a blue pen, but now I use a black pen. I have not changed anything at all about my teaching but the colour of the ink I use. My students learn in the same way except that now they see my black writing on the board"


This is what I hear when I listen people speaking about their use of technology. It is not about the teaching, it is not about the learning it is just about the technology. As if by just using a computer the learning/the teaching would become better by magie. Like if changing the colour pen could hide the fact that my teaching is mediocre.


I have nothing against (quite opposite actually) the use of technology if only you can back up why you do what you do and/or why your students do what they do. As long as a teacher has a vision and the way to get there is to use an Ipad then go for it. If you ask your students to write on NOTE on an Ipad, why not using a piece of paper. If your teaching/ learning can be done on the piece then do it on paper and don't spend $1000


What do you try your students to achieve when you ask them to use technology or when you use technology in your class?

2 comments:

  1. Yes, definitely question whether you are using technology to enhance your curriculum or simply to replace something already done without it.

    I admit that I like connecting my laptop to the projector when sharing an image from Flickr for a story write in French rather than running off print copies for the class. I realize I could have printed one copy of the image and used it with our digital projector. However, I like to model to students that I use Creative Commons images from Flickr's website (we've discussed CC in class in the past). I also like to avoid printing paper. Lastly, I like that it can be viewed in color with the projector rather than black-and-white. But I definitely could have used paper instead of my laptop for this assignment!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Bernadette, thank you so much for your comment.

    I like the fact that you like modelling to the students using CC images !!! it is very important to show them that we do respect other people's work

    ReplyDelete