Journal 1

"Professors adjust their methods to reach technology-savvy generation"
by Eleanor Yang su

In this article, Su describes how classrooms are changing with the integration and increased use of technology. From a teacher’s perspective, the change has been both positive and negative. The positives are that the use of multimedia tools and interactive websites and discussions has provided professors more contact with students and the ability to respond quicker to students’ questions and needs. The main frustration expressed by professors concerning technology is the competition for students’ attention. Some teachers find it difficult to engage students who may be surfing the net, emailing, chatting, or playing poker online in class. This online multitasking by students has raised questions. Are students learning more through varied technological formats? Some students feel the use of technology makes them more productive and connected and could not imagine sitting through an entire class without the ability to be online. Nevertheless, the article mentions that experts say switching attention is not advantageous and that Millennials make more mistakes and complete tasks more slowly when trying to do several things at once.

1)How can I make technology in the classroom engaging?
For technology in the classroom to be engaging, I think it has to be seamlessly integrated into the lesson. I really liked the idea of the Clickers and similar technologies mentioned in the article. Clickers and accompanying software could be used to collect data from students in a math lesson on graphs or statistics. I think students would be more engaged because the data they are analyzing is their own.

2)Will teaching at the middle school level be affected by online multitasking?
I hope not. I think students at the college level are able to get away with surfing the net while in class because they are more capable of teaching themselves the material later. I also believe that learning skills and understanding concepts is more important at a younger age and question the maturity of young students to multitask online. In my opinion, online multitasking is the only considerable drawback to increased use of computers and technology in schools.