Hello everyone, today I would like to rise a question,
can we use technology to promote children’s literature?. I must confess that I
support the integration of the technological advances into the
classroom, but always following the guidelines of the CLIL approach. In fact, I believe that it can be an extremely useful resource
and I will try to show you along this post.
First of all, we need to stand out two words, “use vs. integrate”.
Why?, because I think its necessary to know
the difference between use the technology and integrate it into the classroom. During my practicums I realized that most of the
teachers just use the technology. This means that they only tend to instruct the students
through the technology, using the Cd of the book or just writing randomly in
the IWB (Interactive White Board). These types of activities usually have a minimum direct interaction of the learner. However, the integration of the technology refers to those activities, which engaged and promote children interaction
and cooperative learning, enriching the overall understanding of the topic. This
integration involves something new for the student, such as interactive books,
web making software, augmented reality and so on.
Furthermore, the
integration of these tools in the curriculum, improves exponentially students'
learning processes and outcomes, promoting higher-order thinking and problem
solving skills. However, you should be selective and choose the most suitable
apps according to your aims and the level of your students (or kids).
Secondly, as far as I know, there are a wide range of free tools that
you can use in primary school to enhance children’s literature. But, how can we integrate those tools?. The key
fact is, involve the students in the process and as a result you will catch their attention. The student has to be
able to manipulate them, and become
creators and critics instead of just consumers. But always, you should scaffold the process to guide
the activation of the schema and the assimilation of the contents that you want
to work through it. Consequently, the materials have to be more learner-centre.
Nevertheless, you have to be careful because there are some apps that
can distract children from the real target. For instance, here you have a video
about the beautiful and catchy digital book, “The Tale of
Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter. Please,
Watch it and then try to answer this simple question: Do you remember what it
said on the third page?. I don't think so, but I’m sure that you remember all
the things that you can manipulate in it. That is why you should be
selective, because not always the most beautiful is the most appropriate.
In my opinion, a good
example of one app to enhance literature in class is Zoobrust. In fact, I recently
discover it and, from my point of view, it is amazing and easy to work
with. The special fact of this app, is that you can create stories in
AR(Augmented Reality). Here you can see a video about a story that my group and I have
created in class and that I have adapted for this platform:
Last but not least, I would like to recommend you this website, where you can
find hot news about interesting apps. After all of these facts, are you willing to accept the challenge
of the new technologies?, and if you are working with it, do you use or
integrate it in the class?.
Thank you for visiting my blog
and If you want more information or have any doubt, please do not hesitate to
contact me.
Hello Alberto!
ReplyDeleteI have read your post and I think it is a very interesting topic which is around us every day.
According to your question, can we use technology to promote children´s literature? I think that technology is an approach to many subjects because children love it. Nowadays, they grow surrounded by technology either at home and at the school.
It is amazing how they use an ipad or a smart phone, when I see my cousin 3 years old making puzzles in an ipad, I feel fascinated.
Look at this video and watch a baby using an ipad. It´s great! Doesn´t it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMsT4qNA-c
Almost all of the teachers, despite stating that the application of technology in the classroom brings them more work, consider that improves learning and student motivation, but from my point of view, we must not forget traditional books.
In books we find certain aspects that droplets become pleasure: the smell of a new book, the sound of the pages to pass them, touch them, the weight of the book and even the texture of the paper with the ink printed. All these things make us love those little pieces of paper and cardboard. We can no find this pleasure in an ebook there are a lot of advantages using them trying to encourage literature in children.
In conclusion, technology should not be used otherwise to what traditionally we were already doing in the classroom, but to do something that until now could not be carried out because we had no technology.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPj0qgvfIs
Nuria
Hello Nuria,
DeleteFirst of all, I would like to say thank you to share your point of view about this topic, because there are a wide range of opinions about it. In fact, I agree with you about treat the technology as a good approach for different subjects and the fact of no forget the paper books.
However, the integration of the technology into the way of teaching doesn’t means that you should have to use exclusively that resource at the expense of the books. We are in the 21st Century and I believe that it is beneficial for the students to integrate these advances into our teaching practice. As far as I’m concerned, these tools enrich the classroom learning as well as enabling adaptation to different styles of learning and boost students motivation, providing them a variety of inputs. But we should know how to use it properly in order to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, that is the problem which most of the teacher has.
I would like to share with you this words, because I think that it transmits perfectly my point of view about this topic: "Technologies should not support learning by attempting to instruct the learners, but rather should be used as knowledge construction tools that students learn with, and not from” (Jonassen, Carr, Yueh).
Thank you again for you comment Nuri ;)
Alberto.Z
Hello Albert!
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very interesting post. From my point of view, technology can promote children´s literature, but as you said before, “it´s necessary to know the difference between use the technology and integrate it into the classroom”.
As far as I know, in public schools the assigned teacher for TIC coordination isn´t specialized about it, he is just a teacher that boasts about his knowledge with computers and when the rest of the teachers want to do something related to TIC, they ask to this “TIC coordinator”. Therefore, if the “TIC coordinator” is a well-prepared and skilled teacher, the rest of the teachers will be able to develop activities integrating technology into the classroom otherwise, they will be just using technology in the classroom.
This comment is making me wonder if wouldn´t be a good idea to have specialized teachers for TIC as we have it for English, music, physical education, etc.
Edu.