Chapter 2 - Transforming Learning with Unique, Powerful, Technology.
How do students use technology for learning visually?
Visual literacy is important because it allows students to
get a better understanding of what they are trying to learn. With technology,
students can explore every angle of an idea, and become exposed to many
different vantage points which can help them better understand a subject. Our
textbook provides a great example of this, through a website created by the
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, which provides an interactive visual
experience of a Pre-Revolutionary War. With this website students can become
involved in the situation and watch it in “real time” thus allowing them to
understand the events that occurred rather than having to imagine what it was
like. For example, when you read a story you take what the author has provided
you with and create your vision of the characters, scenery, and events. Even
though the same story is being read, the vision changes with every person that
reads the story. If that book is made into a movie the characters, scenery and
events come to life and they are not always exactly what you may have
envisioned in your mind. This is similar to when a teacher tries to teach a
class about a certain subject, the teacher can try and describe what a
particular event was like but the students will get a better understanding of
the event if the teacher can provide a visual aid along with their lesson.
I chose to explore “The E-Skeleton Project”, http://www.eskeletons.org/index.html
which allows the user to examine the skeletal anatomy of both human and non
human primates. I found this website to be very useful and quite interesting.
This website would be ideal for students studying anatomy and medicine. The
website breaks down every bone of whichever skeleton you are viewing and
provides multiple views of each bone, along with a size description and a color
coded breakdown of each area of the bone. I strongly believe that tools such as
this would benefit students in understanding the anatomy of humans and animals,
and may even help students begin to learn about anatomy at a much younger age
because everything is broken down in a simple and easy to understand way. I do
believe that the website should offer some descriptions about the bones rather
than just the names.
This chapter provided a lot of interesting ideas about using
technology in the classroom. Much like the parent at the beginning of the
chapter, I have been very reluctant and somewhat against allowing my son to use
technology on a daily basis, but this chapter has shown that interactive
learning can be very beneficial to a student’s academic progress. I believe
that as a teacher I would like to practice a student centered approach and
allow students to use technology as a hands on learning experience. There were
two major points brought up in this chapter that I found very interesting; the
first was information literacy and internet literacy. Often we overlook the
fact that the internet is a tool that can be accessed and also modified by
anyone, and not all of the information found on the internet is trustworthy.
This chapter made me realize the importance of teaching students to learn how
to find what information is accurate and what information can be misleading so
that technology does not have a negative effect on their academic progress. The
other interesting topic brought up in this chapter was feedback using
technology. Students that are in the learning process are motivated by instant
gratification, and realistically it is difficult for one teacher to provide
instant feedback for a classroom of 25-30 students. With technology students
can take participate in a variety of different programs that allow students to
learn and “play” while receiving instant results. When I was in school I was
part of a reading program that would give me a test on the books I would read,
at the end of the test I would receive points based on how many books I had
read and how many questions I answered correctly, at the end of each grading
period the students could turn in their points for prizes. This program motivated
me to read more books because I wanted to earn more points. The instant
gratification of receiving my points immediately after taking a test was very
motivational and allowed me to improve my reading skills. Now that technology
has evolved, students can use programs that allow them to explore and
understand different subjects while also helping teachers understand what
students need more help on. I believe that this chapter is accurately described
by Seymour Papert’s quote: “As technology propels active engagement and
creative thinking, it creates continuous opportunities for teachers to make
children’s thinking integral to the learning process.”
