“One dilemma for teachers, then, is the pedagogical
challenge of designing meaningful tasks that will engage and enrage students.”
(Adlington & Hansford, 2008)
Engaging the students is a challenge from the beginning of
teaching. I have noticed it is hard to
get the students involved if there is no support or no will power from the
students. It is like that saying you can
take a horse to a river but you can’t make them drink. We as teachers can teach and teach, but we cannot
make the students learn. It is up to
them. We can however, change the way we
present the material. We should try to
engage the students and help them be involved.
Teachers should be engaged as well to show the students how much they
care.
- Why
is it important for teachers to use digital media to support writing
instruction in school?
Teachers need
to use digital media because that is how students are being raised. The article emphasizes that kids are now
being born into technology. They need to
be exposed to what they already are aware of.
- What
are the differences between writing online and writing in school?
Writing in
school is still paper-based. Writing online
is more informal and seems to engage the students rather quickly. Also writing online is more for an audience
of greater number. An example would be a
blog.
- How
should teachers use digital spaces to support writing instruction in
school?
Digital spaces
should be used to support students’ writing within the school. Teachers should use different sites to engage
the students and help them develop to the world around them.
- What
are some of the challenges to using digital spaces for writing instruction
in school?
A big challenge
is actually creating engaging, meaningful activities. Another challenge is the availability of
technology and keeping the technology working.
- The
authors of the reading provided some excellent examples of how teachers
used the social purposes of new texts to support learning in school.
Please find another example (Lesson plan or student created product) that
provides a good example of how a teacher kept true to the social purpose
of a new digital text to support learning in the classroom. Please provide
explanation for you example.
The students go through this quest and learn about Pi. They are asked to create a facebook
discussion about what they have learned.
This is perfect because students are currently using facebook as a means
of social communication.
References
Adlington, R., & Hansford, D. (2008, July 6). Digital
spaces and young people’s online authoring: Challenges for teachers. Retrieved
June 10, 2013, from National Conference for Teachers of English and Literacy: http://www.englishliteracyconference.com.au/files/documents/AdlingtonHansford-Digital%20spaces.pdf
Iger,
J. (2012, June 22). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.tomsnyder.com/math-hub/bid/76261/Engaging-Middle-School-Students-in-Math
I agree with your point of view, "it is up to them... we can change the way we present the material." Utilizing multimodal forms of communication when presenting material is a great way to help connect with our students.
ReplyDeleteTeachers have a lot of potential to help students find their own purposes for learning! Many sttudents are not motivated by recieving a good grade or going to college. We need to make the content relevant to students lives!
ReplyDelete