DIGITAL OR NEW LITERACIES
Module from Middle Grades Curriculum
There has been a ot of discussion about how technology influences our learning and acquiring information as well as the whole process of cognition.
Podcast: http://www.americanradioworks.org/how-do-we-learn-better-digital-or-print/
Katz (2016) in his article "How Do We Learn Better: Digital or Print" provides a podcast of Stephen Smith about how digital technologies change the way we learn. It is inevitable that digital learning changes the way we acquire information. Smith claims that our brain shows different types of cognition when we play digital game rather than board game. People approach and interpret information differently while doing the same activity in real life and digitally.
We as teachers should take it into consideration and make a shift between digital and print documents in order to provide better learning. Scientists have found out that digital learning creates concrete and factual interpretation of data while information learned from printed resources develops our abstract thinking and lets us make any necessary connections with other sources of information and the situation in the world.
It all makes learning more personalized and it is inevitable. Richardson (2012) in his article "Preparing Students to Learn without Us" claims that we live in a moment where personalizing the learning experience is not just a possibility - it is almost an expectation. However, we should differentiate between personalized and personal learning. According to Downes (2011), it is autonomy that "distinguishes between personal learning, which we do for ourselves, and personalized learning, which is done for us." Richardson's only hope is that classroom and teachers should help a learner become a passionate, patient, connected learner who is empowered to truly learn whatever and whenever he needs to.
Learning is becoming personalized. As a result, our brain is getting personalized too. Science correspondent O'Brien (2011) looks at what is happening to teenagers' brains in our multitasking world of gadgets and new technologies.
Our time and technology provides a shift from single-task activities to multitasking. Students more and more often combine several activies with the help of technologies. They video chat with friends, chat in Facebook or Twitter, do their homework and talk to their parents. Isn't it amazing? Modern lifestyle creates a generation of tech addicts.
However, scientists claim that we cannot do two tasks as well as we can do each one separately. Marcel Just from Carnegie Mellon University says that multitasking is possible but efficient multitasking is a myth. There is always a cost which we pay to divide our brain concentration into several activities.
Nevertheless, it is a world tendency and we are living at the time when we are collectively building better brains, or at least different.
However, teachers and other adults are not always ready to such changes in students' learning habits and behaviour. Some teachers say that laptops have changed the way they teach: less lecturing, fewer worksheets; more student projects, more lessons customized to the learning needs of each student. But in many schools where computers are introduced, nothing changes about how teachers teach or about how students learn.
The first thing to do, according to Hanford and Smith (2013), is create a new mindset in teachers in order to change the way they teach rather that simply change books into computers. This is an idea which is implemented now in the USA.
Unfortunately, here in Kazakhstan this change will take much longer because nowadays there are still very few teachers who take advantage of new technologies in their classroom and implement changes to their way of teaching.
References:
"Digital or New Literacies" Module from Middle Grades Curriculum
Hanford, Emily, & Smith, Stephen. (2013). One child at a time: Custom learning in the digital age. American RadioWorks. Retrieved from: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/personalized-learning/#1
Katz, Ryan. (2016). How do we learn better: digital or print? American RadioWorks. retrieved from: http://www.americanradioworks.org/how-do-we-learn-better-digital-or-print/
O'Brien, Miles. (2011). Is technology wiring teens to have better brains? PBS News Hour. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se8jmKHlXvU
Richardson, Will. (2012). Preparing students to learn without us. Educational Leadership. Retrieved from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0kJUUs48nTbazJZcDB2My0wNjg/view
No comments:
Post a Comment