It’s the age old question: how to get kids interested in learning? The article, “Ten Ways to Get Beyond PowerPoint with Classroom Projectors” by Ron S. Doyle, gives many examples on how to do just that. I have gone through most of the educational classes that are required of us to take and the underlying question in all of them is how to get kids motivated to learn. Doyle gives several examples of things that will get kids interested in learning. One particular idea Doyle has is to “put away those old flashcards- young students love singing karaoke to practice their pronunciation and targeted sight words”(Doyle). I had never thought about this to be honest. We have always had those little rhymes and sings to remember grammar and word types, but I had not thought to broaden that idea into every day and week items that go on in the classroom. When I read this, my mind just went crazy with possibilities, and this was just with one of his suggestions!
Doyle has nine other suggestions that he thinks are great motivators to students, some of which I had heard of. One, in particular, I don’t think would work very well. He gives several original ideas and then he talks about doing board games on the projector as tests and quizzes. He says to “turn those groans to glee” (Doyle), by using these interactive games. In a couple of my classes we have used these games, both in high school and here at IUPUI, I have noticed that some people really get into this, yet others feel more uncomfortable than they would be if just taking a test. They feel pressured to answer correctly for their group/team. Others don’t know the material and now everyone in the classroom knows that fact which makes it embarrassing for the student. Also, I don’t know, from a personal standpoint, if I like the idea of a group quiz/test because then I am only getting the answers from a group and not the individual. I do not think that I could know from the results who was struggling with that topic and who knows what they needed to.
Some of the questions this article raised were; Doyle said to record yourself on a podcast for days that you are not going to be there or for other teachers to use. I do not know how well this would work out, most students have questions and if a sub is playing the podcast and a student has a question, how are they to know the answer? I don’t think it would get the class anymore ahead while i, or another teacher, was away then if they had just done busybody work for that day as well if questions were in need of answering when I, or the other teacher, got back to the classroom. The other question I had raised, was with the interactive game board, doesn’t that induce cheating. The group really wants to win so they feed the answers to the student answering instead of the student answering his/her best answer to get credit for it? That would also, go back to, how would I properly grade each individual if they were being fed the information? The ideas in this article are wonderful, but some I don’t know if I would be comfortable using. It was definitely an article I will bookmark and come back to once I am in the classroom and need the ideas.
The second article that I read was “25 Ways to Teach with Twitter” by Sonja Cole. This article is just what the title says; it is twenty-five different ways to use twitter to help you in the classroom. I read this article because; one, I do not know anything about twitter and two, I do not know if using a public site like twitter is professional. So naturally, I read the article to see what Cole thought and how she argued the use of this public site as a teaching tool. She had many very good ideas on how to utilize this site to help both in the classroom and out of the classroom. One point says to ask others for ideas of books to read in the classroom and ideas on lessons while another on her list talks about doing a book club online instead of having to get everyone together to talk about it. In today’s world i think we all know how hectic it can be to collaborate with several just as busy individuals, could be a big time saver. Some of the other points I don’t know if it would work and be a time saver like she says.
An example she uses is, “3) Ask for help or advice about a professional question. Sample tweet: Is there a way to find out when your teaching certificate expires?” (Cole). I’m not sure about this one. It seems like it would be great, no hunting around the internet hoping to find an up to date website with the answer. But how much can we trust the people responding with the answers? I know we would like to believe that no one would go on and purposely put something that was incorrect, the problem is that people think they have the correct information and then later find out that it was changed. Therefore, wouldn’t everyone double check to make sure it was the correct information? Then, if we have to research to find out of the answer is correct was it really quicker or faster Twitting the question than just looking it up since we ended up looking it up to verify?
The other question that this article posed for me but did not answer was is it ok, professionally; to put school thins out on the internet on such a public site? This is Cole’s tip that I wasn’t sure about; “13) Link to photos of your classroom. Sample tweet: K-3 Teacher Resources Photo Gallery - Share and Browse Classroom Photos http://tinyurl.com/px7so4” (Cole). With so many parents no longer wanting their children being even photographed, I do not see how people would be ok with a teacher putting pictures of their children on a public website like Twitter where anyone in the world can see. I think it would run into some legal standpoints there and could be a potential for the school corporation being sued. I took a law class and even since can see where all these people are suing for stupid things and winning. I seem to now look at the legal outcomes before I do anything.
An idea that I got from Cole’s article I might have to follow up on in the future even just for personal reasons. “25) Join a Twibe. A twibe allows you to follow a group of like-minded people” (Cole). This seems great. I do not know how they determine if you are like-minded to this person or that person, but the concept really appeals to me. It would be wonderful in teaching, you could find teachers that teach the same way as you do and bounce lesson plans and ideas off one another from across the country whereas normally you would never have met each other.
The internet is becoming a wonderful thing. Technology, for that matter, is becoming a wonderful thing. It does have its downfalls, but what doesn’t. When used properly, technology can be very helpful to making all areas of living better. We are in a smaller world, figuratively, with ideas being bounced immediately from one country to another, from one state to another. It no longer takes conferences and research to be published for a small town teacher in Iowa to know about a new teaching technique that was developed in California. I have used distance learning centers and did a presentation about them last semester. While doing research, I went to the local elementary and high school to interview the librarians as well and teachers who used distance learning in their lesson plans.
For those of you who do not know, distance learning is like podcasting, but live. You hook up webcam and mic with a company or individual and have a live feed chat or lecture in the classroom or in a special room. The company or people doing the demonstration or lecture can do and show much more than if they were to bring things with them. The local elementary school hooks up with the zoo and the handlers are able to bring the animals with them in front of the camera so the students get to see the animal interact with their handler without the threat of danger to the children. The high school using the distance learning to do their anatomy final, a coroner does an autopsy and the students have to determine cause of death and led the coroner through the autopsy telling him what to do when. A second grade teacher hooked up with a teacher in a different country for the year. The students were paired up and once a week would get online and ask each other questions and talk about the differences to living in America verses living somewhere else. To be honest I liked the idea of distance learning before I interviewed all these people, after I love it and will make it a point to use it whenever it will help.
As I said before, technology is becoming a wonderful thing, if used correctly. Take this class for instance, I did not have time for another class on campus, but I can sit here and do the assignments for this class after work late at night. Who knows what will happen next to make our way a little easier in life? Maybe the answer to my opening question; how to get kids motivated about learning, is technology. They seem to enjoy using it and have an ease most of us older people do not around it. The future is a mysterious thing no one knows where it will lead us.
Works Cited
Cole, Sonja. 25 Ways to Teach with Twitter. June 4, 2009. http://www.techlearning.com/article/20896. Sept 15, 2010.
Doyle, Ron S. 10 Ways to Get Beyond PowerPoint with Classroom Projectors. April 12, 2009. <http://www.techlearning.com/article/17198. Sept 15, 2010.
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