Just Do It !

Technology in Education

In my previous blog I mentioned the research of Randall Stross which indicated that students from low income families performances dropped after receiving computers. I also went on to enumerate some of the factors that I thought might have been involved. The question then arose in my mind as to what might happen if we ameliorated these factors by exposing low income families to a range of options and then scaffolding them in using these. What would happen if we changed the culture of education in low income families? This would surely level the playing fields.

The English did it!

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education diversification in the range of technologies available, and improved access to them is changing the nature of literacy and numeracy programs and resources in Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

These include the following:
 Digital cameras to produce books that nursery children can then print off and share with parents
 Interactive story CD-ROMs in libraries for young children
 Word-processing facilities and Internet access as part of homework support facilities in libraries
 “Smartboards” – interactive whiteboards in nurseries and schools
 Web-based clubs at libraries for young people to review books.
 Laptops for young people who live far from schools, allowing learning on a flexible basis, access web-based assignments and e-mail contact with a tutor.
 Handheld computers and tablet PCs giving more flexibility in note-taking, including handwriting directly onto the computer.

Read this- Me read, No way!: A practical guide to improving boys’ literacy skills.

Computers Lower Test Scores in Poor People!

Children from low-income households in the United States have lower test scores after they obtain home computers.

Shocking, isn’t it? In fact the New York Times Magazine’s Randall Stross reported that economists have concluded that little or no educational benefit was found when children of low income households used computers. Further, it was reported that computers seem to have further separated children in low income households whose test scores often declined after the machine arrives, from their more privileged counterparts.

One of Stross’ arguments is that middle school children are versed in the art of idling and the personal computer may be the ultimate time wasting machine. In a study by the University of Chicago, it was found that there was a negative effect on academic achievement in low income families who got vouchers. Similar effects were noted in Romania in a 2009 study of families which got a 200 Euros voucher to purchase a home computer.
Guess what was the positive outcome?

Well as you might have guessed students generally improved their computer skills. After all, practice makes perfect. It not that poor people don’t appreciate good things; we also need to consider the software, use in the classroom, internet use, family practices, home assigned uses and levels of basic literacy in the first place. I am very passionate about the use of computers for educational purposes especially in terms of the level and quality of training in the major teacher education programme. I am doing my third tertiary level educational technology course and I feel disappointed that courses are so often rushed and we barely get the time to build real competence with the technology. It’s always about the assignment and the grade, it’s disgusting. Anyway, I’ll stop now before I use any bad words.

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Keep reading the Millennium Reading Specialist

Lap tops a political toy?

Ploy or toy?

As opposition leader, current Prime Minister Kamla Persad –Bissessar promised a free laptop in the bookbag of every child who wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) in Trinidad and Tobago. A promise that is yet to be fulfilled but which I am sure will soon materialize. This promise was a courageous one especially in the context in which it was made. Additionally, the Guardian newspaper recently reported that St Vincent’s Prime Minister, Ralph Gonzales is now looking into free laptops for its 30,000 primary and secondary school students at a cost of over 70 million dollars. Similar to Trinidad’s situation is that this seems to be a political move since elections are due next March and the opposition leader is also promising free laptop if elected. additionally, children have also recently received free laptops in Argentina.

Are we ready?

My hope is that we have the infrastructure and capacity to deal with these digital children. I am concerned with the use of these computers for educational purposes that would enhance and develop basic literacy skills such as reading and writing. Additionally, I pray that we develop the level of technical support that would be needed for this type of venture. It also goes without saying that I am a primarily concerned with the human resource capacity of the nation’s teaching service to effectively use technology in education. Other than two Bachelor of Education courses and this one, I wonder what else is available. What does Education’s Human Resource division have in the pipe lines? To be honest I’m a bit nervous. My concern is the general incompetence of the Ministry of Education in most projects.

What are your thoughts with regard to the Laptop matter?

Keep reading
I have a shocking revelation on this matter from the New York Times Magazine

Still Having Boy Problems ?

Leave the boys alone; let them play!


Parents and teachers alike rapidly disregard boys’ obsession with computers as a gratuitous diversion from their traditional book-based literacy. They rarely appreciate its potential to empower users to gain access to and control of information. Millard (1997, p. 46) asserts “It is imperative that educators and parents be aware of the impact of the multimedia world, and understand the positive ways in which these new languages and cultures can be harnessed as adjuncts to book-based literacy”.

So, are we aware?
Boys know their way in the technology jungle all too well. We need to capitalize on their attraction to computers to motivate and stimulate their literacy development. It is we therefore, the so called “educators”, that now need to be educated. We have to become proactive to be able to trek though their technological jungle. The most important piece of advice I have is to go bravely, be open and fear nothing.

Be Prepared

We simply have to be prepared. I recently completed a computer literacy class with a few teachers (both primary and secondary), and it was not surprising that many of them were basically tabula raza. The onus is therefore on us to take the initiative to become computer technology literate. There is no magic to it but lots of logic, since many of the technologies retain similar features. We just need to explore, practice, use the help function or when all else fails call a more competent colleague.



Keep reading the Millennium Reading Specialist for a list of strategies for success with boys.


Millard, Elaine. (1997). Differently literate: Boys and girls and the schooling of literacy.London: Routledge and Farmer.

Welcome to the Jungle

The Boys' Jungle

Be weary of all those wires, circuits, overloads, downloads, RSS feeds, viruses, trojans, anti viruses, browsers, 3D, cd, dvd, ROM, RAM and servers. When I studied Computer Studies in secondary school (just the other day) the most confusing terms I had to learn were bits and bytes.

Today, children have surpassed all of these technical terms by age five and seven. I remember being extremely embarrassed recently as I sat at my desk fiddling away at my laptop when a seven year old boy enquired about whether I was on FB and used Skype. He also volunteered to help me programme my i-pod when he saw how frustrated I was, while manipulating it.

These boys are absolute geniuses when it comes to technology. So the million dollar questions are
1. How come we still cannot return boys to the normal learning curve?
2.Don’t we know what they like and are good at? (Mind you, girls can be just as good)

It is no secret that new information technologies challenge us with new modes of text, opportunities to cater for different learning styles, interests, creativity and motivation for boys. These provide important opportunities for engagement in rich reading, writing and visual literacy activities.

Researchers such as (Daly, 2002, p. 16) point to the fact that visual images “accelerate” boys’ learning. They thrive on the visual language of television, cartoons, and video games due to a high orientation to visual/spatial learning. They therefore respond well when presented with the opportunity to present their ideas and written work using charts, flow diagrams, and other visual forms.


LET'S GET WITH IT TEACHERS

Keep following Millennium Reading Specialist for further discussions boys' literacy

So, you want to be my boyfriend eh? Can you read?

I perused the internet reading about topics that interest me, foremost among them being men. My interests are purely professional of course. I then reflected on the state of their literacy; something which I am sure you have all questioned at some time or the other for even the more ‘educated’ ones. My mind then strayed on the almost intractable role of teachers in developing the literacy lives of our future men.

It is no secret that boys fall behind girls in early literacy skills and that the gap in attainment widens with age. In Trinidad and the wider society, this is reflected in a new social order inclusive of shifts in family life, higher education and the job market. It is tragic that we are loosing our men since they are increasingly marginalised, emasculated and distracted by anti-schooling masculinities (I learned these terms in ‘Caribbean Masculinities’- a course in UWI that teaches about the male psyche- I passed with flying colours!).

My proposal?

It’s simple, help the boys!

The U.K. Department of Education and Skills explains that “The challenge of raising achievement directly addresses the learning needs of students and the professional growth of teachers, and enhances the role of the school as an agent of social change”. I agree fully with this, in light of the controversial issue of the Ministry of Education’s same-sex pilot project in the secondary sector.

Maybe someone with more information could tell me if teachers in such schools are currently being trained and schools equipped with to handle the following?

1. Choosing appropriate classroom resources for boys

2. Providing frequent opportunities to read and write

3. Understanding boys’ learning styles

4. Using the arts to bring literacy to life

5. Appealing to boys’ need for social interaction

6. Influencing boys’ attitudes through the use of role models

7. Bringing critical-literacy skills into the classroom

8. Making reading and writing relevant to boys

9. Using technology to get boys interested in literacy

10. Using appropriate assessment tools for boys

11. The role of the teacher in boys’ literacy

12. Engaging parents in boys’ literacy

13. Building literacy beyond the classroom

Trust me, I did not make these up!

Read this- Me read, No way!: A practical guide to improving boys’ literacy skills.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/brochure/meread/meread.pdf.

Follow the Millennium Reading Specialist for further discussions on “men”, sorry, “boys”!

I’ll be discussing #9: Using technology.

It is an ICT course after all!

make it, learn it, love it!

Having been introduced to concept mapping software, I think it provides a wonderful means for enhancing the classroom experience.
Concept mapping has been defined as process which involves the drawing of pictures to represent relationships among and between concepts and ideas. It caters for visual thinking and visual expression and therefore facilitates a range of pupils who are not usually properly accommodated in the classroom. I feel strongly about this because these are pupils not unlike myself.

I use concept maps in Creative Writing all the time. They help me to break down topics into their component parts, sequence events, link ideas and facilitate the sharing of experiences. I can now see myself using the free software and the projector to do these same tasks, more efficiently of course. Additionally, I would be able to add pictures and make the maps more students friendly. I’m very excited about this because I can make copies for the children instead of wasting time for each child to copy from the whiteboard. They aren’t usually able to fit the entire thing on the page anyway.

I’m just loving the concept mapping software, I hope you are too.

They’ve been using it for years and moms don’t know!

The internet has indeed provided global bridges for communication. The use of the computer technologies today is as pervasive as was writing with pen and paper in the twentieth century. Literacy instruction that once encompassed the basics of reading, writing, listening and speaking now necessitates critical technology skills for communicating, investigating, and critical thinking. There must therefore be a stronger focus on critical literacy with respect to evaluating the messages from the various forms of electronic media.

Furthermore,we must recognize the potential for new technologies to reinvigorate the reading lives of children as they navigate the digital landscape. Bruce and Peyton (1999), underscore the significance of the use of network based approaches to support authentic reading and writing, collaboration, student centered learning and writing across the curriculum.
Here are just a few that can be easily used and are readily available. Feel free to add others:
Reading
1. Audio books
2. Electronic books and online texts
3. Electronic talking books
4. Programmed reading instruction

Writing
1. Word processing
2. Desktop publishing
3. Multi media composing
4. Online publishing of students’ work
5. Internet based communication

These are all over ten years old!
Are you surprised?

Stay tuned for what’s new.

Thanks All!

I thank you for the interest you have shown in my blog. As the weeks progress I hope that I would address all your issues especially posed by Paulad and Jennifer thus far. Thanks also to Merle and Lyn.

Firstly, I agree with Merle that children have different capabilities and we must recognize this fact. When I used the term used “ proficiently” however, I recognize that there would be various shades of proficiency depending on the abilities of the learners. I have been forced to accept this harsh reality from my interaction with a class of special needs children in the past year.

Paulad and Jennifer, I agree that children have to learn the basics of reading and writing, this is irrefutable. The use of technology could greatly enhance this process. I have used games from Leap frog for example that were very interactive and motivational for the early learners. I remember one child learning all the alphabet letters and sounds in two weeks. There was also the opportunity to learn to write the letters using magnetic pens. There are also many simple websites with games that reinforce concepts taught in the class. The important thing to note is that the technology does not replace the teacher but assist her and the learner in ‘working smart’.