Hello, all. My name is Chris and, truth be told, I have no intention of teaching at the secondary level. That may surprise many of you, as, after all, I am an English Subject Matter major. Instead, I’d like to teach at the collegiate level, probably junior college to start. To those of you brave enough to willingly enter the madness that is high school, I salute you. I just don’t have the patience. Oh, and dealing with parents would be a nightmare—seriously.
As for media technology in the classroom, I can’t see how it would be anything but a huge boon for teachers. The standard lecture/homework/quiz…tune out/procrastinate/regurgitate model is archaic and, I believe, part of the reason the educational system as it stands, is failing. Kids need to be engaged. Teachers have to compete with Xbox 360s, iPods, Hulu, Torrents, Facebook, and all other manner of instant gratification in this world. How can a teacher possibly keep a child’s attention with all of these distractions? The outside world is so much more appealing than the classroom. That is, unless, we begin to incorporate some of the technologies these children have begun to embrace, into the classroom. Take this course, for instance: we’re updating a weekly blog via the internet, a place where most of us spend hours a day anyway. I can only speak for myself, but I would much rather update a blog than read through three chapters of dry material, only to answer a slew of inane chapter questions. And I’d imagine, most high school students would agree.
Imagine a classroom that had access to JSTOR and Project Muse. A classroom that not only explored metaphor, simile, and foreshadowing in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but also demonstrated the aforementioned in Apocalypse Now. A classroom that taught the concept of a phalanx through a video game like Rome: Total War. The possibilities are endless. The point is, times have changed; so, too, must our methods of teaching. Media technology not only should be incorporated in the classroom, but must, if we are to change America’s educational slide.
January 26, 2010 at 5:50 PM
Chris, you are very articulate and made what I consider to be crucial observances pertaining to the consequences of media technology’s influence on today’s youth; in particular, what you mentioned regarding the expectation for instant gratification of what is being referred to as the “Me” generation resulting from exposure to media technology apparatuses such as Xbox 360s, iPods, Facebook, etc. Overstimulation resulting from such apparatuses, in my opinion, widens the threshold we as teachers must cross in the classroom in order to engage our students; however, technologically literate teachers maintain the capacity to bridge the gap, and you provided excellent examples (JSTOR, Project Muse) of how media technology can be successfully implemented in the classroom. I enjoyed reading your commentary!
January 26, 2010 at 10:15 PM
Chris,
I have to agree with your response. As teachers we must find new and innovative ways to inspire and engage our students. Technology gives us that oporutnity. As the older and "more" experienced teachers retire the new generation of teachers are more equipped to help students understand the material in front of them. With technology teachers and students are able to incoproate different mediums to interpret the "text". Like you said as teachers we must compete with all sorts of technology, we have to be creative. The future is technology we must embrace it. Greast job!
January 27, 2010 at 10:06 AM
While I applaud most of your post (especially the bit about parents being a pain to deal with - that is NOT an aspect of teaching that I am looking forward to) I disagree slightly with something you said. I don't think that teachers should be competing with "Xbox 360s, iPods, Hulu, Torrents, Facebook, and all other manner of instant gratification in this world". If we try that, then we are bound to lose. No matter how fun an assignment was, the chances of it being seen as more interesting/exciting/engaging then a student's social life are next to zero. I think that instead of trying to compete with "fun media", then we should be working with it. There are so many lost opportunities in seeing things like gaming as competition instead of a source. Especially when it comes to English classes – some games have such rich and deep storylines, it’s amazing to me that hardly anyone things to examine them! We’ve incorporated movies into the classroom, I think that the next step is to incorporate games. Then instead of competing with gaming systems, we can use them to our advantage.
January 27, 2010 at 3:51 PM
I agree that having assignments that are to be posted on a blog are much more desirable than having to read through several chapters and alking away from the text feeling unengaged. At least with the readings that we have to do, we can incorporate and reflect what we learn in our blogs.
January 27, 2010 at 4:15 PM
Hey Chris its Tom and I like your blog, its original. I hope we can work together because I think we made a good team in English 429