With the movement towards online classes growing stronger, as evidence by K–12 Distance Educators at Work: Who’s Teaching Online Across the  United States by Leanna Archambault, there are some students who would benefit from these classes.  Those students being motivated and intelligent and interested in pursuing a variety of classes as those mentioned above.  However, these are the type of students that will succeed regardless of the setting or instruction method.  My concern is for students who have learning disabilities or at least difficulties in the classroom.  I believe that I am better able to suit their needs than a teacher who is online and less accessible.  Students with these challenges also suffer from motivation issues or emotional problems.  One of the show in the K-12 video showed indications of learning disabilities, however his mother was there to serve as his “learning coach” and monitor his progress along with his teacher.  We know that not all parents are as dedicated or able to serve as involved “learning coaches.”  Online classes can be good to supplement curriculum, but not to replace core teachers and meet the needs of those with difficulties.

Seeing how some classrooms utilizing technology is certainly overwhelming in some cases.  The resources and philosophy of some of the schools that I was introduced to are vastly different than my current situation, but I found myself very open to the idea of moving my classroom in the general direction of technology based.  There were several projects and ideas that I found useful and easily adaptable to my classroom.  The best idea was creating a wiki page for my students to create projects and publish on.  Another idea that I would like to implement is the opportunity to post and respond to current events online in which I am working on creating  a blog for.  Hopefully that will be up and running by 4th quarter.

My classroom vision is certainly changing the more technology that I am exposed to.  I have already spoken to the technology coordinator at my school to see if a few computers can be added to my classroom.  Currently we have a laptop cart that shared between five classrooms, but I thought maybe a few in my classroom would be beneficial for quick projects and research.  This new directions will no doubt have several positive impacts on the critical thinking skills of my students, their flexibility and adaptability.  The only con that I foresee is involves timing.  I feel that some projects take a great deal of class time, something that I feel that I am limited with.  Organizing, gaining access to technology, and implementing technology based projects effectively are some of the challenges that I see as a set back to the vision that I am developing for my classroom.

(1) topic
(2) grade level
(3) remembering question
(4) understanding question
(5) applying question
(6) analyzing question
(7) evaluating question
(8) creating question

1) Life during the American Civil War
2) 8th grade
3) Describe what life was like for a soldier during the Civil War.
4) What differences existed between soldiers fighting for the north from soldiers fighting for the South?
5) If you were to meet a soldier who survived the Civil War, what questions would you ask him?
6) Do you think it was easier to be a soldier for the South or the North? Why?
7) How did most soldiers die during the civil war? Reflect on possible ways a soldier could have avoided this?

(8) Imagine that you are a soldier during the civil war.  Create a journal with 4 – 5 different entries that include details about how you would survive as a soldier during the Civil War.

As an educator, our constant goal is to present new information to our students, get them to make connections, and then get them to ask why.  Our entire educational system is centered around higher, deeper learning.  We are not satisfied with an 8^th grade education anymore.  Without a high school diploma, job prospects are extremely limited.  College degrees are the norm and that is giving way to fields that now require higher levels of education than just a bachelor degree.  Deeper reading, learning, and thinking is the ultimate goal of the education system.  With the advent of computers and the internet, scholars and educators have written numerous articles and blogs about the integration of these resources into the classroom.  Now as the internet has taken gripped its hold of education, the question is asked, does the web challenge the student to achieve the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy such as analysis and synthesis?

Arguments that state the web does NOT facilitate deeper reading, learning, and thinking?

With the amount of information available on the web, critic Nicholas Carr says that result is a lot of information is now skimmed, rather than any one topic thoroughly read and understood.  In his article, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” published in the July/August Atlantic Magazine, the author explains it well when he says, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”  Carr does recognize the benefits of technology and the web.  Research that would take days sifting through the stacks at the library now takes a matter of minutes.  But now that tons of information is available to us at a moment’s notice, that does not mean that readers are actually understanding what they are reading.  The main argument of the author’s article is that the web is causing our brains to change the way that it interprets information.  He cites a few other technological revolutions such as the invention of the mechanical clock and the typewriter.

Carr’s main support in his article revolves around the idea of a reader’s ability to focus and pay attention.  Carr and other literary accomplices have noticed their inability to read long, deep pieces of writing such as War and Peace.  Carr’s attention begins to wane and he becomes fidgety whenever he is confronted with words longer than a couple of paragraphs.  The author attributes this phenomenon due to the wide availability of text on the internet but the presentation of it in short formats.  We may be reading more these days but it is no longer the deep cognition material that we have been reading in the past.  The author then asserts that this new form of reading is changing the way that we process and think.  He cites a number of studies that are being conducted, most currently one from the University of London.  In the midst of the study now, results are beginning to show that readers using two research cities are only skimming through articles and spending only mere minutes on each article.  These results are part of a five year study that has yet to be concluded.

Other evidence that students are not reading or learning at depth comes from the article, “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?”  These article was written by Motoko Rich and published by the New York Times on July 27^th, 2008.  In the article, Rich gives a situation involving student Hunter Gaudet.  Gaudet who is dyslexic, has adapted to his learning challenge by using honing his search skills.  When looking for answers, Gaudet avoids reading by using the search keys to look for specific information.  For example, when researching Roger B. Taney, Gaudet went to the Wikipedia article about Taney and searched for college.  Gaudet bypassed reading and searched for the one piece of information that he needed.  Search engines are beginning more complex as Google continues to develop its search engine to help find what users want.  The more these search engines develop, then the better the better the search results which would then lead to less reading.

Arguments that support that the web does facilitate deeper reading, learning, and thinking?

The same article by Motoko Rich also gives good evidence that the web does support reading skills.  Rich cites a recent study in that discovered students in low-income homes that were given the internet actually improved their test scores.   The availability of internet seems to have the great effect among low income families.  In another study, 700 students from Detroit reported that they read more from the internet than any other source.  Critics that support the development of reading skills from the web say that standardized tests are not adequately measuring technology skills of the 21^st Century.  The Educational Testing Service has recently developed a digital literacy test that measures students ability to search the web looking for answers.  Many advocates are pushing for a national test that would measure digital reading, but little development has been made on this subject.

My Thoughts on the Topic

While the debate on this topic is extensive, I believe that there is not enough conclusive evidence that supports either position.  While Carr presents evidence citing past technological revolutions, I do not think that the adoption of the mechanical clock or typewriter is evidence to support that our brains are changing.  The research on brain activity and learning is rapidly evolving each year.  It is too early to go so far as to say the web is changing the way we think.  Carr does have many valid arguments that given more research and studies, I believe that they will be supporting.  Whether we can blame solely the web or not still seems to be determined.  I argue that not only the web, but video games, television, and other recent technological developments may have an effect on how students are learning.

As far as personal experience goes, the short attention span of todays students is hard to ignore.  Differentiated instruction, or the variation of teaching methods, has been a widely adopted to help circumvent this issue in the classroom.  There is no doubt that the web has had a serious effect on learning in the classroom.  Studies and research has just not been able to keep up with the effect of changing technology.  This topic is however, very important for educators to keep in mind.  If this is the trend and the web is having this effect on reading, learning, and thinking capabilities, then teachers need to be aware of this trend and help offset this in the classroom.  Primary sources are very important to the social studies curriculum as they provide excellent incites to important historical situations.  These documents are help develop critical thinking skills and require the student to delve deeper into the content.  In light of this recent research, the value of these types of activities exponentially increases and as an educator, I will make more of an attempt to develop these skills.  Until the research catches up with the technology, educators can only be aware of the issue.  It is alarming to me to think of a student sitting at a computer and using simple search keys to find facts rather than read about the important effect that a man like Roger Taney has had on the judicial system in America.

K-12

6-12

PK-12

This is an important skill that all teachers should know and students as well.  For lesson plans on how to teach Google Web Search click on the link below:

Google Web Search – Classroom Lessons and Resources

Her most recent post dealt with the issue of human rights.  Within the discussion of education reform, Nielsen states that students have been denied their right to participate in the discussion and that this is an example of discrimination based on age.  Nielsen feels that students’ voices should be heard.

In her second post, Nielsen provides research showing that students who didn’t receive a traditional education early in life, were still able to read proficiently by the time they were 15 years old.  In contrast to this idea, the government has established a general rule that students should be proficient by 4^th grade and to measure this they have instituted a number of standardized.  Nielsen states that the money spent on these tests would be better spent elsewhere such as technology and that the 4^th grade rule maybe arbitrary.  Nielsen provides evidence that these tests hamper the enjoyment of reading and actually deter students from developing that skill.  Nielsen concludes that the 5.3 billion spent to administer tests would be better spent on other aides that would help students achieve success rather than wastefully measure it.  Teachers are trained in assessment and standardized are not needed to do a teachers job.

Her third article gave an overview of the Google Chromebook.  Nielsen gives a list of several positives of what she likes about this tool.  She has been using it for about three months.  For schools she sees a number of advantages such as the replacement of devices every three years.  This is the best tool for those students who don’t have internet at home.  Nielsen really likes the Chromebook because its fast.  It boots in few seconds and has access to the Google App Marketplace with a number of Apps for educational use.  It also has a battery life of eight hours and immune to bugs and viruses.  Her major issues with this technology was the different keyboard that has no Caps Lock and in the typical delete buttons spot is the power button.

The fourth article is a guest post about the over diagnosis of ADHD/ADD and unneeded medication for students given this diagnoses.  The author states that giftedness has the same symptoms of ADHD and that students diagnosed and medicated may actually be gifted and bored in the classroom rather suffering from ADHD/ADD.  Because most teachers are left brain people, they don’t understand how the more creative and visual right-minded students learn and as result they misdiagnosis.

Overall I would say that this blog is good for any educator.  The topics covered are general topics that every educator could stand to read more about.  The other blogs posted are much more technology driven.  I feel that the four recent posts don’t reflect the overall technology centered approach to education that Nielsen has.  She has other blogs about using cell phones in schools and a list of don’ts in regards to Smartboard use in the classroom.  I found the Smartboard list of don’ts to be very informative and I will be much more aware of this lists when using my Smartboard tomorrow in school.

All of this articles can be found at Lisa Nielsen’s blog at: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/