My brother is 14. He goes to a public high school near Paris, France. He does not play any sports and has some trouble socializing with his classmates. Most of his free time is spent playing (online) video games and chatting (with friends? With people he plays games with? With strangers?). During my visit in France, I noticed that he had a blog. I am not sure how he uses his blog, but out of curiosity, I tried (teenager) to have a conversation with him about his use of technology. He reported that, were he given a choice, he would like to use technology all the time. However, when I asked him about the use of technology in the context of his school, his response was firm: Never!
Does that mean he is enraged? Is the French school system failing him? Will he not be able to catch up? I am very curious to watch, observe and compare his education with some of the students in our international school setting.
I would like to take things with a grain of salt. Some of the articles we have been reading are trying to convince educators to step away from their traditional teaching and use new tools. I feel the teachers in our coetail class have already taken that step. Our international school is well "en route". I am (al)ready to use technology. I am convinced that it is important to step on the same level of the students. What I need now are concrete ideas & examples of applications in my language classroom.
I struggle with finding a balance between good ole classroom teaching and technology. Should I not hang on to it so much? I am not ready to tell my students that using online translator to write their French project is OK. I still want them to think rather than let the machine do it for them.
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It is a difficult thing, to distinguish the line between being open-minded to accepting and employing new forms of technology on your class from going too far and steering with reckless abandon over the cliff of the "Digital Classroom". There is no need to throw off all of the tools and ways you have been trained in to accept the changes in information presentation. But you do have to stay current. You need to incorporate a sizable level of technology into your classroom. Otherwise you will be labeled as a teacher who rejects technology and it will invalidate some of the respect your students have for you as an educator.
ReplyDeleteApproach it the same way you would as if you were teaching a new concept to your students. Address it slowly. Court it for a while. Introduce it to yourself in a way and at a pace you can accept. As if you were recognizing your own Zone of Proximal Development. Dont get in too deep, too fast. Your students will see this as a lame teacher trying desperately to stay connected to his students, but failing at it.