Educational Technology Research
Educational Technology Research
Technology has been quickly creeping into our lives through the generations. As the studies and trends mapped by McCrindle show us, our entire lives have been shifting through the years due to technology. As an educator going through these trends was extremely clarifying. As I sat in the teacher's lounge, going through the info-graphics of all the known generations, I soon gathered the attentions of all of my colleagues. We sat there, all together, analyzing and making sense of what we saw. The beauty of this was, we all teach generation Z, but at the same time are all from other generation ourselves. Some of us are Gen x, y, and even a baby boomer who was subbing an algebra class that day.
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| Picture Credits: https://generationz.com.au/ |
As we look at the information we make sense, and agree with almost all of the information gathered. Yes, our students are extremely visual. Yes, leadership models have changed, therefore shifting our teaching approach. Yes, the generation we are teaching gathers information differently then we might have in the past. All these things are influenced by technology. Soon a discussion began of the changes in teaching that had to be done over the years to help these generations learn, along side the changing world. We can no longer stand in front of a class and verbally give our students content. Our teaching adjusts to them, because their worlds are so much different then ours. On top of all that it's extremely important to remember that we are preparing them for jobs that have not even been created yet, that involve technology not yet innovated.
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| Picture Credits: https://www.pewinternet.org/ |
This conversation, in the teacher's lounge, automatically pushed me towards the content of pewinternet.org. As soon as I opened the link I saw so many articles, about various technologies, that will soon be a commonality in our world. I was surprised to see titles of articles that I had no idea people we researching or even thinking about. These pockets of information push the power of technology into the future. When going back to the thought that our student's will have jobs not yet created, these innovating articles gave me a small snapshot of what those jobs might be. This information can help educators lead student's towards the right directions.
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I LOVE that looking at this research was something your colleagues were engaged in! What statistics stood out to you? Which reports from Pew did you read?
ReplyDeleteI think the most clarifying statistic was the leadership and learning styles. I definitely see a meaningful shift in curriculum and instructions for a push to active, student centered learning. Collaboration is key and that was pointed out in the statistics. Also I always keep in mind that my students grew up with youtube and now live streaming. This forces me to supplement lessons with videos that might help them put a visual to the content. Basically these statistics help me understand their language.
DeleteJoanna,
ReplyDeleteI too talked about some of the research I did with my colleagues as well. It is always so interesting to get different perspectives and opinions! I really enjoyed when you said "The beauty of this was, we all teach generation Z, but at the same time are all from other generation ourselves. Some of us are Gen x, y, ... baby boomer." . We do have to as educators take into consideration that we grew up in a different technology world and our students are growing in one that is different from ours. We are all learning about this ever changing technology and have to make sure we are adapting and teaching in a way that is comfortable for us and beneficial for our students.
Joanna, I like how you mentioned the teaching styles have changed because students today are more visual. I think this piece of information is important for all educators to hear and research about because many do not want to adapt or change their teaching styles to meet the needs of their students. I remember being in middle school and having a Reading teacher who refused to use technology in the classroom. She did not know how to use it and would become very frustrated when not working correctly. Thus, we spent a lot of our time reading from the textbook and answering the responses at the end of the story.
ReplyDeleteI teach 1st grade and I know if I speak for longer than 5 minutes, I lose the interest of almost half of my students. They are actively engaged when movement and technology is involved. However, if the work requires sitting at their desk for a long period of time, many of my students being antsy and ask me to take a break.