I’ve viewed over and over again the video clip entitled “The machine is using us”. Why? I’m not sure myself but it brings to mind the old adage of the tail wagging the dog.
I got to reading a few journal articles when I came across an interesting one about a girl who is never excited about writing activities and assignments at school. Her parents nonetheless expressed that she’s ALWAYS writing on her computer at home. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Aren’t our pupils ALWAYS reading successfully for parents at home? (but never for us at school?)
The student in the above scenario asserted “That’s online writing, not boring school writing!’ to the utter dismay of her teacher. True to form, her teacher took it personally. Something must be wrong with- you guessed it- the student! How can she and every other child who owns a computer be passionate about writing? (Blogs, texts, wikis, nings, videos- maybe?)
Which brings me to the topic of this post- aren’t the students teaching us? A reflective teacher would also learn from students along with teaching them. They are after all digital natives, we must learn their language and culture or become obsolete!
If teachers quit teaching the curriculum and look carefully at the students whom we are supposed to be teaching, we’ll realise that they want to learn through different modalities. Remember the theory of Multiple Intelligences? Nowhere is it more explicit today than in online learning activities.
References:
Wesch, M.(2007). Anthropology videoblog.(video file) Retrieved from
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&feature=player_embedded
Witte, S. (2007). “That’s online writing, not boring school writing” Writing with blogs and the Talkback Project. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51:2, 92-96.
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