Chapter 10 Class Discussion

I apologize for being late with this journal entry, but blogger.com has been rather slow as of late. In my previous post, I talked about my reaction to chapter 10: now, I'm going to discuss the class discussion. Since it was led by a guest lecturer, Dr. Zsuzsanna Szabo introduced herself to the class and informed us that one or two people in this class would be especially useful in this discussion (as Dr. Lavele warned her). My PocketPC attached to a portable keyboard gave me away! I predicted I would be picked on throughout the class: I was right. As a sidenote, it didn't help that I want to impress Dr. Szabo with my knowledge of geography as she was from Romania. However, I forgot that Bucharest was its capital (not Sofia), and that compounded the already unwanted attention on me.

Dr. Szabo broke us up into groups, each group received a section of the chapter to review, and each individual in the group had to pick one word that jumped out at us and/or summarized the section. Our group got the "Uses of Technology" section which included a treatment on the cognitive skills required to successfully use tech for teaching/learning. My partners picked words like "communication," "engagement," and "challenge." I picked "self-regulation." Why? First, it is an important lesson for kids to grasp: when you're on a computer, you need to have the self-discipline to use it appropriately and effectively. Sitting in front of a computer connected to the internet can open a world to a child: but, it's a vast world full of distractions and shifty information. Secondly, since I'm a fairly "wired" person, I too suffer from a lack of self-discipline: the computer is a tool, information conduit, and entertainment center. It takes a lot of willpower to wield its power for a specific task: especially when I need to write a paper and my favorite game, "Day of Defeat," is beckoning me to play. Or, I need to do research on the web and find myself surfing over to my favorite political or geek blog. A teacher needs to understand that kids today view the computer as an extension of their lifestyle, and so, we need to make sure students learn how to use it as a precise tool. I found it funny that my classmates guffawed when I told them I plugged my computer into my big screen TV and used it as a big computer monitor: I used it to watch some of my favorite recorded TV shows (I have since figured out how to watch TV shows on my PocketPC!). For me, it's not an issue: I don't think of the computer as a monolithic object, and at the same time, I don't go out of my way to find new uses for it.

As a side note, I also praised and warned them about myspace.com: a decent but extraordinarily popular social networking website. I bet most of their kids have created a page on it. It's great for getting an "in" on new music, but there's a lot of undesirable content too.

Lastly, in our groups, Dr. Zsabo gave us one more topic to discuss so that we could create a list. OF COURSE, my group's topic centered around reasons NOT to use technology in the classroom (and it must be noted that it wasn't by accident that we got this topic). Luckily, I realize that technology is not the end-all-be-all of education. My group was surprised that I had a lot to offer! Our list consisted of: lack of activity (becoming a "mouse potato"), lack of socializing, developing poor gross coordination skills, safety, unreliable/inappropriate material, distracting, lack of sun exposure, high demands on teacher resources, mobility issues, students can do illegal acts on it (hacking), and lastly, expensive! As I gave my group's summary of our list to the class, I found it hard not to qualify some items on our list (especially the social aspect), but overall, I believe I was successful in being very exhaustive on this topic.

I definitely had fun in this class! I just wish there was a class solely focused on technology and cognitive psychology (and there might be).