Week 2 - A Post Discussing "Turning On the Lights" (required)

"Compared with students' technology-infused lives outside of school, the traditional classroom is a somber place." - "Turning On the Lights" by Marc Prensky

Some students describe entering the classroom in terms of "powering down".

Turn off your iPods, silence your phones, take out a pen and paper, listen to the teacher speak, and take adequate notes based on the lecture without the use of your computer or laptop. Read a textbook, analyze a novel, examine a book, involve biographies. Leave Twitter at the door, sign out of Facebook, don't blog, stop texting - close yourself off from a limitless source of knowledge in connection with almost any human being in the country. In the world.

That's the way some students feel when they walk through those double doors into the halls at school. They think their teachers want them to completely disregard the technology they've grown up using - the technology that has taught them so much already, and could definitely continue to teach them. It's the same technology that the jobs of tomorrow will rely on - the technology tomorrow will produce and improve upon. It's the exact technology that Prensky thinks the teachers of today's young minds should use to invigorate, inspire, and otherwise improve the leaders of tomorrow.

One section in this essay discusses how past generations grew up in "intellectual darkness" until they went to school and were shown the light. Unlike those generations, today's learners grew up in the light - they're constantly surrounded by it. They live with one ear plugged into an iPod streaming music 24-7 and the other listening to a friend while they simultaneously write papers for English class. They are exposed to the world through the internet, social networking on Facebook/Twitter/blogs; while playing video games based on history, watching movies that involve other cultures, and surfing through YouTube. Today's generation experiences the world, information, and the "intellectual light" with unceasing relentlessness.

With those thoughts in mind, and while I read the article in its entirety, I began brainstorming ways that I might be able to incorporate technology in my classroom. It proved a much more difficult task than I previously thought, considering that I'm no stranger to technology. But here are some thoughts (based mainly on an English teacher's perspective):

1. Have a class Twitter or Facebook page for updates, information, and schedule reminders.
2. For current events = sign up for news paper/station email updates, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
3. Analyze video games such as "Caesar III, Age of Kings, Age of Empires, Civilization IV, and Rise of Nations" for historical fact and fallacy. Write a compare/contrast essay based on a video game versus the real-life event.
4. Analyze the cultural influences, stereotypes, or facts within musical lyrics or songs (from oldies to modern day techno).
5. Subscribe to a blog - any blog - and read a post weekly. Edit and proofread the post for grammar/spelling errors, literary techniques, and stylistic characters of the author; summarize the post, provide the main points and single overall message. Add any questions, reflections, and things agreed/disagreed with.
6. As far as research goes - allow students to pick topics that they think are important or interesting. Read a book, write a paper, and supplement those with some sort of technology based project (powerpoint, blog, movie, slide show, interview, documentary, etc).

To wrap this up, I'd like to note that although I agree with this article, I find it to be exaggerated a considerate amount, and any readers need to take note that perhaps the exaggeration exists in an attempt to make a point. Read with discretion.

Again, bravo if you read all the way through.

Until next time.