Many times as a technology teacher I have found myself trying to justify the teaching of technology skills (Typing, Software Instruction, etc.) as separate entities from everyday lessons in the classroom. I do believe that there is a time and place for both integration and stand alone technology lessons, but maybe it's because I teach at a elementary school that I find the need to have more lessons on the technology itself. I have found that some of the teachers at my school are quick to say things like type this document up in a word document. Now, this might seem like a no brainer to the teacher because they feel like they are teaching their students how to use technology as a tool to help them with their work. Then, they get every body's word documents and look with horror as their students have created documents with strange fonts, font size, improper titles and headings, and no paragraph indention. Not to mention that the students pecked it out with one finger and it took them twice as long to complete their document because they have never developed any typing skills. I have come to find that when teaching elementary age students you can never assume that students know how to use certain technology we take for granted properly. It is necessary to show students how to use any tool. You wouldn't give a table saw to a 10 year old and say, "cut this piece of wood. Make sure it's a clean cut because you only get one chance!" Although this may not seem like the same thing as telling a child to type up a word document, but in many ways it is the same. We are asking our students to create a quality product with a tool they have never been trained on. Which means we are setting them up for failure from the beginning. Same as the table saw we are also putting them in danger because we are allowing them the opportunity to develop bad habits they can follow them into high school and beyond. I should know. I still peck around the keyboard with two or three fingers because I was never trained with proper typing skills. So this blog, will take me longer than someone who has received the proper typing training. At the same time we have to be careful to not implement any technology skills into lessons because then students have a hard time understanding that technology is a seriously helpful tool for learning. It is a fine line we walk as educators, but as with the table saw you wouldn't want to teach your students how to cut a piece of wood just for the sake of cutting it. We have to teach that it is a means to an end. We want to show that by having the proper training with tech skills we create something that has meaning and use. Then our students can take that table saw and use it to express their creativity in a proper way.
http://www.libraryinstruction.com/info-tech.html
http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/front_tech.htm
http://www.gmu.edu/resources/facstaff/part-time/strategy.html
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I work with primary age children only, K-3rd and alot of the technology that we are using is sometimes above thier heads, but they enjoy it nonetheless. Our school no longer has computer lab as a prep, so with basic technology skills such as typing, and so on, they are really lacking, it is really sad to see the children spend what seems like at least 10 minutes looking for the "b" on the keyboard. I think if students had the opportunity to practice in isolation or have an teacher instructed lesson on a more consistant basis then basic skills will be a tiny bit better. I also think teachers should give more mandatory assignments that require using basic typing skills.
ReplyDeletePaulette says...
ReplyDeleteYour point of view on technology integration is one I have seen throughout the blogs that I have read on the subject. what I want to comment on is the point you make about elementary students not have the basic skills neede to use the technology with efficacy. Having taught high school computer information technology, I can tell you that 90 percent of the students I saw, from freshman through seniors, did not have adequate basic word processing skills. So I would say, that there is definitely a place for structured typing practice and stand-alone word processing lessons. If nothing else, these experiences will allow students the ability to access integrated technology lessons in a faster, more effective way.
Are you deleting my comments? I am convinced I made more comments than I can find, and I think I responded to this one already. Anyway, I am going to make a screen shot of this for evidence.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there is some agreement that some direct instruction of use of the tools is important, but that at some point students need real ("authentic") projects for them to push themselves further, and to cement the skills they have learned. I guess the challenge is figuring out the right balance.
jd