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Eliminating Fear in the Classroom by Making Human Conversations to Make Room for Real Learning

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I consider myself to be a technology cynic, which some would think is odd. According to Mark Prensky, I am a perfect example of what he calls a “digital native,” or someone who was born into the culture of using technology, and as such sees the world differently because of it. I was born in the late 1990s, and growing up I always had access to technology. In school, I can remember using laptops in the classroom as early as elementary school, and by the time I was in high school, everyone had a smartphone. Until I graduated high school, I was still primarily using word documents and slideshows to complete any assignments I needed to. The only major additions to how we used the internet included learning how to use spreadsheets and academic databases in high school. In my educational spaces, I would describe the ways in which I used technology in school as technotraditionalist: the term Scott Noon uses to describe people who “use technology proficiently to complete traditional classroom ...
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"The Danger of a Single Story" by Linda Christensen

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 Ahead of this blog post, I decided to read the chapter "The Danger of a Single Story" by Linda Christensen from the Rethinking Media and Popular Culture book. Once I began reading this chapter, I realized why the title of this chapter spoke to me: it was named after the Ted Talk of the same name from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Not only had I seen this Ted Talk before (many times), Adichie is one of my favorite authors, and was also the commencement speaker at my undergraduate graduation from American University in 2019.  Christensen wrote this chapter to discuss how she goes about teaching a lesson on writing personal narratives. She explains how she decided to create this lesson after observing students who were at "the intersection of being surprised by the racism their brown bodies brought to them and the tough-boy masks they created to survive." She decided that she wanted to design a curriculum that taught students how to navigate a society that discriminates ...
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Tiktok as a Digital Classroom Resource

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Here is the tutorial you have all been waiting for: Tiktok! I had so much fun making my Tiktok for our class activity last week, and it seemed like many others enjoyed it, so I thought I would share some of what I know about the app, how to make a video and some ideas for how it can be used in the classroom. (This is my Tiktok from class, give me a follow @abbyjeri!) What is Tiktok?  Tiktok is an app and website where users can watch or create short videos. Videos can either be 15 seconds or 1 minute long and soon all users will be able to make 3 minute long videos as well. What sets Tiktok apart from other video-posting apps is its use of “sounds,” which can be anything from songs to movie or TV quotes or just quotes from other Tiktokts. You can copy and paste a sound from other videos on the app, which makes it very easy for trends and dances associated with specific songs or lines to go viral. Where should I start? If you don’t have a Tiktok account, I highly recommend download...
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Sugata Mitra

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In Sugata Mitra's Ted Talk "Build a School in the Cloud," he makes a claim that the education system as it is today is not broken, but instead, it is obsolete. Mitra explains that the modern education system was created during the British Empire when it was necessary to educate people from all over the world to be able to read, write with good handwriting, and do basic mental math in order to be productive in the workforce. At the time, the education system was very successful at preparing people to join the workforce and successfully complete tasks required of them. Today, however, those same skills aren't necessary to be successful in life.  With this notion that the current education system is obsolete, Mitra went on to research how children learn. He found that children in remote areas of India who did not speak English or know how to use a computer were able to learn how to use an English-operated computer without outside instruction. He also found that they were...
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Turkle and Wesch

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So far, I think Sherry Turkle's Ted Talk "Connected, but alone? has resonated with me the most. As she was describing the phenomena of how people today use technology to feel more connected yet are just further isolating themselves, I couldn't help but think of the meme from Facebook "I'm in this photo and I don't like it."  But in all seriousness, this Ted Talk really hit home and made me reflect a lot on both myself and my own experiences with technology, as well as my experience with my students and technology. I was shocked to see that the video is almost 10 years old because it rings so true to today, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic. This was my first year of teaching, and I remember the first few weeks of school feeling so anticlimactic. I teach 7th grade, and for the first two weeks of school we returned fully virtually. Once students returned face-to-tace, they had to be socially distanced and have masks on their faces, and only half of the ...
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Mike Wesh

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At the start of the Ted Talk, Mike Wesch points out the flaws in the statement "some students just aren't cut out for school" by replacing it with the phrase "some students just aren't cut out for learning," which he believes is inherently untrue. Wesch points out that all humans are meant for learning, and that we have just created school systems that don't help all students learn. Wesch found out through interviewing his students that the questions that really drive students in the classroom are "Who am I? What am I going to do? How am I going to make it?" He says that these are the big questions that are motivating students to learn, yet most students don't get to engage with them during school. I will admit that I find this to be a massive challenge- Wesch is teaching in the context of a university, but I am teaching middle school students in a science class. How can I help my students address these questions and make what we're lea...
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Prensky and Boyd

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I found Prensky's ideas about young people as "digital natives" to be very interesting, but I believe many of his assumptions to be too broad. I see the value in distinguishing between those who were born into a time where technology was less pervasive in our society than those born more recently, but I think this creates a lot of incorrect assumptions about young people who have been exposed to technology their whole lives. Boyd does an excellent job outlining some of these incorrect assumptions that Prensky makes, as well as highlighting the danger in those assumptions. At one point she notes that by assuming young people are digital natives, we are actually ensuring that they will become "digitally naive." That comment really resonated with me because that has been my experience working with youth using technology in the classroom. Just as Boyd describes in her text, my students often rely heavily on Google to complete classroom research, without critically e...
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