Waters, John (2009, March). The Kids Are All Right. T H E Journal, Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24104
Chances are your kid or other kids you know are better with online technology than you are. It is inevitable your child will end up online chatting with friends, creating blogs, profiles and possibly even making their own website. So where do your children or students rate in their level of online activity? According to John Waters there three different levels of online involvement that kids fall into. The first is called the "hanging out" category. The kids who are just hanging out are focused on basic technology skills mostly used to navigate the internet for information, and the necessary technology to talk to their friends through things like IM. The second group of kids are a step above the first in what's called the "messing around" group. This group is a combination of kids who are just hanging out, but who have also taken the time to learn some new programs and dabble in the technology world. Many of these kids are new to technology, but they have found an interest in what's available for their use. Finally, the third group of kids are those who are "geeking out." These children are fully immersed in online technology and often know more than adults do. The geeking out kids usually have the ability to navigate the internet, chat with friends through a variety of different outlets, and they are creating their own wiki's, web pages, and even posting videos. The geeking out kids have the ability to adapt to the majority of all new technology. It's amazing what kids can do; take advantage of what they know and learn from them!
Question 1: How can you take advantage of your students online technology knowledge?
Answer: I know you are the teacher, but take this opportunity to allow your students to teach each other! When a student teaches another student how to do something they tend to relate to one another much better than we teachers can relate to our students. Plus this opens up a great window for you as the teacher to understand what kids are into. When the teacher can get the students engaged in an interesting topic they enjoy the amount of learning that can happen is phenomenal!
Question 2: What is the benifit to using online technology as a part of your classroom?
Answer: As adults we are always complaining that students spend too much time online and not enough time doing their homework. What if we made going online their homework? Have the students create their own blogs, or communicate through google docs, or engage them in a class wiki. This way the students can do their homework while they talk to their friends online. They are great multi-taskers.
Question 1: How can you take advantage of your students online technology knowledge?
Answer: I know you are the teacher, but take this opportunity to allow your students to teach each other! When a student teaches another student how to do something they tend to relate to one another much better than we teachers can relate to our students. Plus this opens up a great window for you as the teacher to understand what kids are into. When the teacher can get the students engaged in an interesting topic they enjoy the amount of learning that can happen is phenomenal!
Question 2: What is the benifit to using online technology as a part of your classroom?
Answer: As adults we are always complaining that students spend too much time online and not enough time doing their homework. What if we made going online their homework? Have the students create their own blogs, or communicate through google docs, or engage them in a class wiki. This way the students can do their homework while they talk to their friends online. They are great multi-taskers.
No comments:
Post a Comment