I already liked the idea behind the ISTE standards, I think they are really thoughtfully geared towards avoiding those teachers who want to be an unchanging island unto themselves. We've all had the teacher who has been teaching since dinosaurs roamed the earth who spends class reading from the yellowed legal pad with the notes they've been using to teach the exact same lesson since 1974, and we've all been bored to tears in their class. I don't want my students to weep in my classes. At least not from boredom.
I think its so important for schools to cultivate engaged teachers who know how to benefit from each others strengths, and who are flexible and want to collaborate, and who are always looking to learn and grow and improve their students' learning. I think that this is especially crucial if we're really going to make that shift in how we think about technology use in the classroom.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize how crucial it is to teach my students to think, and to be responsible digital citizens, and how can I do that if we never have any engagement with the wider world through our technology? On the other hand, if I can teach my students how to evaluate the validity of a source, and how to think critically about what they encounter on their journeys into the internet, maybe I can prevent my students from turning into whatever the 2045 equivalent is of that cousin or uncle who unironically posts flat earth memes, or doesn't believe in vaccines. If I can manage that, I will truly have done some good in the world.
I think the fishbowl activity could have some strong benefits but would need serious modifications in a secondary classroom. Even if the technology/chat room worked perfectly, I would be concerned about high schoolers getting off task, or missing the point of the exercise. The conversation was dominated by a few of us, so I can see the chat as benefit for kids who are prone to being shy, or don't see a chance to participate in the conversation.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. It definitely did promote discussion, and with some kind of incentive for kids to stay on task it could be a good resource.
DeleteI had the same difficulties as you Rene. I would have found that exercise more helpful is the chatroom actually worked. It was terribly frustrating not to be able to post. I found that I did stop listening when I was looking at the chat and when I was writing my responses. Do you think it would be more effective if things actually worked?
ReplyDeleteI think that we still would have been caught up in the chat and not listened to the discussion, but I also think that the chat would have stayed on topic if people could have actually contributed to the discussion. In the few moments we could actually post, I actually did start to have really intriguing discussions on the topic a couple of times. So...with a working chatroom, I still think its unfeasable if you're expecting students to listen to the in-person discussion, but if you can let go of that expectation, I think its a really good way to encourage in-depth discussion on a topic. However, all of that I say with a caveat that it has to be a discussion about something the kids think is interesting. Otherwise I would expect little-to-no meaningful on-topic discussion.
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