Sunday, August 9, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
"Stop playing w/that phone or I will confiscate it!"
“No true best practice has started out with, ‘have students bring their cell phones to class’” (Allen, 2007). This is undeniably true, and makes perfect sense in the realm of phones are distracters, rather than educational. In the last two months of the MAT program, we have been informed of the importance of differentiated learning techniques and strategies. It is totally accurate to say that technology has been a common theme and major component of these discussions. What has been discovered is the idea that cell phones may be a positive piece of technology within the classroom walls. What I think is that for every reason they can be defended as a learning tool, there are probably three reasons to dismiss them as distractions! This is besides the fact that not every student has a phone, or the messaging/internet capabilities to perform the tasks that could possibly be assigned.
It is imperative that students (as well as teachers) are attempting to become fluent in the ever changing ways of technology for the specific purpose of staying ahead of the curve and becoming as marketable as possible to potential future employers. “I cannot think of a job where ‘cell phone operation’ was a skill. Employers are much more concerned about a student’s computing and critical thinking skills than their phone skills” (Allen, 2007). This is such a true statement, and I feel it really sums up this topic. No questions resulted for me after reading both sides to the topic, only an opinion that students are hurt more than they are helped, when using a cell phone in class.
It is imperative that students (as well as teachers) are attempting to become fluent in the ever changing ways of technology for the specific purpose of staying ahead of the curve and becoming as marketable as possible to potential future employers. “I cannot think of a job where ‘cell phone operation’ was a skill. Employers are much more concerned about a student’s computing and critical thinking skills than their phone skills” (Allen, 2007). This is such a true statement, and I feel it really sums up this topic. No questions resulted for me after reading both sides to the topic, only an opinion that students are hurt more than they are helped, when using a cell phone in class.
WTF?!
I believe that Chatspeak is definitely having an impact on our language, not necessarily destroying English, but it is converting students to take shortcuts in expressing their written communication with others. “The shortcuts and acronyms that make instant messaging, text messaging, and online chatting so popular have no place in academic, business, and other formal writing settings where it is essential that all individuals involved are using language that is clear and concise” (Howard, 2007). These academic and business-like settings are exactly the arena’s that are going to be intolerant of “shortcutting.”
I remember back to the history teacher of my first semester of college that actually subtracted points from my roommate’s overall score in the class, because of some chatspeak-like abbreviations he used in an e-mail to her in the first week of class! It turned out that he missed an ‘A’ in the class by just a few points…about the amount he lost from a harmless e-mail the first week!
I believe that teachers will be the ultimate ‘traffic cops’ in trying to keep this type of communication out of classrooms, as this is solely for the welfare of students. “When it comes to students and their use of chatspeak, it will be more difficult for many to switch gears to effective and meaningful writing” (Howard, 2007). The question that I have now, in response to this article, is: how do we internalize this thought process in the younger population who are the ones making this chatspeak widespread?
I remember back to the history teacher of my first semester of college that actually subtracted points from my roommate’s overall score in the class, because of some chatspeak-like abbreviations he used in an e-mail to her in the first week of class! It turned out that he missed an ‘A’ in the class by just a few points…about the amount he lost from a harmless e-mail the first week!
I believe that teachers will be the ultimate ‘traffic cops’ in trying to keep this type of communication out of classrooms, as this is solely for the welfare of students. “When it comes to students and their use of chatspeak, it will be more difficult for many to switch gears to effective and meaningful writing” (Howard, 2007). The question that I have now, in response to this article, is: how do we internalize this thought process in the younger population who are the ones making this chatspeak widespread?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)