social equality and developing the whole human being, plus futurism, and essentialism, which is the idea of
teaching essential skills and strategies to prepare youth for the future where they should contribute positively
to a democracy that is successfully competing in a global marketplace.
activities that have been experienced. Whether it is observing how others do things, actively participating in
physical activity, reading a book, interacting with other entities verbally or physically, or making horrible decisions
and mistakes , the learning process really happens when the brain is processing or reflecting on these activities.
Technology has had a major impact on how we learn and has changed in today's world and has almost infinite
applications in the classroom and elsewhere. Almost any information is available by the click of a mouse,
however information does not always mean knowledge. We need to be extremely careful to guide our youth to
appropriate uses of technology as much of what kids use today can be destructive and inappropriate. Cyber-
bullying on social networking sites like Facebook is on the rise and kids at very young ages are simulating
shooting and killing in today's extremely violent video games . This negative aspect of technology is counter
productive to the spiritual growth aspect of humanism and can be near impossible to monitor. We as teachers need to enlighten parents as to what the youth of today are using technology for, especially when it is used in negative ways. More attention should be given to the importance of the connection between parents and teachers and the strategies to ensure technology is not harming the spiritual and social-emotional growth of students today.
I agree with your first paragraph whole heartedly! As a classroom educator, I find it essential to give them plenty of opportunities to see how important learning is. Your blog made me reflect on my own ideas and philosophy towards learning because I definitely stress that learning is a process and that learning becomes easier with experience, especially as a math teacher! I definitely agree that technology has affected the relationships and interactions between my students. Cyber bullying and the influence of networking sites like facebook is astounding. I feel like it places educators in a very interesting position because my students all have facebook and want to add me as a friend (which I always decline) and in addidtion their parents want to be my facebook friend as well (which I always decline as well). Your blog made me think, “what are some other ways to connect to students and parents using technology that doesn’t involve a social networking site?”
ReplyDeleteThanks for highlighting the spiritual dimension of education. We have quite a challenge ahead of us in trying to pull the best out of technologies, and develop students that can critically read their technology, and develop the appropriate defenses to the most negative parts of new technologies. Perhaps a really well-balanced curriculum both integrates new technologies effectively, and also protects students from them at the same time. The NETS-S standard for critical thinking, information fluency and digital citizenship points in the right direction at least.
ReplyDeletejd