Why are interactive classrooms being used to teach the old fashioned way?

June 17, 2008 at 3:26 pm | In Technology | 6 Comments

Authored by David Adams
(Each student in GMST 525 has written their own post for our class blog.)

One article that caught my attention was When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching. Many times the technology in the interactive classrooms goes unused. With little or no training the teacher can waste more time on the technology than on the subject being covered. With many teachers traveling from room to room, setting up the technology can take time. When the teachers have little or no training on these devices, a simple malfunction can take away valuable teaching time trying to troubleshoot. After a couple of these malfunctions I have personally seen teachers give up on the technology and go right back to the blackboard for the rest of the semester.

I think that when the technology is used correctly it can be an asset to any content area. If a teacher has access to these technologies they should learn how to use them. If they had no training or their training was inadequate, teachers should take the time to find out how to use the technology. If the technology is available we owe it to the students to learn how to use it.

Summer HW?

June 17, 2008 at 12:23 pm | In uncategorized | 5 Comments

Authored by Rick Catalano
(Each student in GMST 525 has written their own post for our class blog.)

More and more teachers are requiring summer homework and summer readings to try to get the students ready for the upcoming school year. While in theory this is a GREAT idea! In practicality, all it does is stress a student out before they even enter your classroom. For advanced placement and honors classes it is understandable. But for regents and/or locals level classes, this is just asking too much from a student.

USA Today had an article in 2004 in which it said “Summer homework has increasingly become a popular tool used by teachers to bridge the gap between the end of one school year and the start of another. But some parents worry that the workload is making summer fun slip away.” Parents are starting to worry that it is taking its toll on our students.

One student in Wisconsin actually sued his school saying “It didn’t completely ruin my summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home and at work, I just didn’t have the energy or the time for it.”

Most students in high school have summer jobs, athletics to train for, as well as their own fun planned. They have earned the right to enjoy their summer. They ARE still kids after all.

Nelson Guirado writes in his blog post Summer Packets-Waste of time, that he is completely against such things. He talks about how during his childrens’ winter break, the principal assigned everyone a packet of homework. He says it was very frustrating because anytime he wanted to get together with the family and do something, they instead had their head buried in their homework so that they didn’t get into any trouble.

I remember the summer before my Junior year of high school I had to do a 200 + question packet of summer homework for an AP chemistry class. True to form like most of my class, I didn’t start it until the last week before school started, when I was also in football practices.

My question to you is thus:
Is it fair to ask these students to do this extra work over the summer, when if they have any questions, all they have is each other or their parents to ask? Is there a better alternative to this? And out of curiosity, does anyone here implement summer homework or would you want to?

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