But as useful as the Internet is, it's purpose is not really in line with the Common Core Standards. The Common Core Standards are trying to prepare students to be skilled readers that read for meaning and the Internet is more set up for speed. When I think back to this last week's searches I did on the Internet, almost all of them involved getting facts very quickly on what I was looking for and then being done. I looked up the weather or one or two facts about different topics. But I did not do any sort of in-dept reading on any of it. I also noticed that, like the article mentioned, I will scan sites for just several seconds before I decide to continue reading or look for another one. Our fast-paced life styles do not really fit in well with reading for meaning but that does not mean it is an impossible goal.
I really enjoyed the slogans to keep students focused and believe a lot of the ideas are great starting points for encouraging students to read for meaning. These are tips that would greatly improve the students relationship with the Internet, I know personally I could benefit by working on a few of these. I think all of these slogans teach responsibility for using the Internet which if available in the classroom can be very beneficial for learning. I think the most important one of them was knowledge mode. The Internet can be a very tempting distraction and students need to be actively engaged in the learning in order to not stray to social media or games.
We are living in such an exciting time because so much has changed so quickly due to the Internet and other new technologies. With this in mind, it is important to find the balance between printed text and other benefits of the past and today's tools like the Internet. Teaching the next generation the best of both times and encourage reading for meaning is not an easy task, but it is something worth fighting for.
I agree that it is interesting how fast technology is progressing. From the time we started school to the time we start teaching, the amount uses of technology in the classroom will have changed dramatically. They have already but just in the next few years I am sure we will see even more growth. That is why it is so important for us to try our best to keep up with technology and become as transliterate as we can be. It will be beneficial to our classrooms and our students to be able to speak a common language.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you said about the internet not always being in line with the Common Core Standards. That is not something I have really thought about until now. We want our students to learn to find meaning on the internet which is why I think it is important to teach our students how to use the internet in safe manner and to know how to check for accuracy and reliability when reading things online.
ReplyDeleteI think maintaining a balance between printed text and electronic text is important, and I think that we as teachers and our students need to learn how to learn from both. I love your comment about it not being an easy task, but something worth fighting for...i 100% agree :)
Yes, the progression of technology is amazing but also a little scary because I don't want to be come the old teacher that doesn't know how to use any of the things in the classroom. I guess since we know about how important technology is and how fast paced it can be that we will have to keep ourselves up to date on all the new things that can be good resources for the classroom.
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