As I was reading Clive Thompson's Smarter Than You Think, one part about technology improving education really stuck out to me. He was discussing how Khan Academy videos are helping students learn as they can rewind lectures and proceed at their own pace since teachers rarely get the opportunity to offer one-on-one assistance for their students. This previous year, one of my favorite teachers Mr. Ducar utilized these very same Khan Academy videos in his Weekly Web Notes assignments. Now I am going to be honest here, I only watched about two of them for the whole year and after a while just rewrote the notes from the previous week and achieved an A on the assignment. I know this will make me appear like a lazy slacker but I invite whoever says these things to watch thirteen 10-30 minute videos (each on the exact same subject) once a week every week. Many would say that this would only hurt my education but I would also like to point out that I got on A in that class proving that those videos really did not benefit ones education so drastically that they were essential. I am aware that teachers love to use online assignments (this blog is an example) because it may reduce the work load and it fits in with today's society where the internet is gold, but I personally feel that not only does it not benefit me but in more cases than one has caused me severe stress when say my computer crashes or other assorted technological problems.
I'm taking geometry online right now, meaning the whole subject is explained in writing on a screen, and I use Khan Academy every chapter because I am a visual learner. If what I need isn't on Khan Academy, I turn to YouTube. Technology gave me a second chance, and I can say that honestly. I messed up in school and only this past year did I step up, and that's when I found out I'm strong in math. I'm extremely thankful for things like online summer classes and Khan Academy and am planning to use it again, because otherwise, I would be a senior in Algebra 2. That is definitely not where I belong, nor does it display where I am intelligence wise. I am grateful I can use what I use as a resource and tool, I took a bit longer to grow up, my counselor understood and showed me the way to independent study. Technology has done a lot for me educationally. I am nervous about the idea of using it too much throughout the school day, of course, but I still believe many more people are becoming better students through it. Besides, it took a good teachers and family to push me to get better, not a computer screen!
ReplyDeleteI understand what you are saying Hanna as when I had problems in Math Analysis this year and one of the first places I went was youtube and usually found the answer; however, this is not what I was trying to point out. It helped, but only when I knew that I needed the help and sought it out on my own. When it becomes mandatory students will likely not pay attention to it or not take it seriously as it is only a video.
DeleteI was using the term that "my computer would crash" almost as a general term because yes that rarely does happen but there have been many times when my printer has legitimately malfunctioned when I needed to print a project. Another example of how technology has failed me was when I was imputing my online homework answers (after completing the assignment as was recommended) at 9pm and it refused to submit because the due date was 10pm but was by Texas time (therefore an hour late) which my teacher either did not inform us of or mentioned in passing. It may be arguable about who's fault this really was but the fact was that I got a zero on an assignment I had spent an hour and half working on, which would not have occurred if the assignment had not been online. Now I would like to ask how this can accurately judge my understanding of a subject if technicalities similar these would occur regularly..
ReplyDeleteThe last sentence in that last comment stuck out to me. "When it becomes mandatory students will likely not pay attention to it or take it seriously as it is only a video." I just wanted to take a second and point out just how relevant this sentence is to the people in today's world. Talking to my father about the subject of this summer's homework, I know he would've killed to be able to use a video to learn when he was our age. Now look how we feel.. We basically shun it, because we would get too bored with it. I'm not directing this towards you Austin, I'm just saying that our generation has become too spoiled, and I don't like the way the future looks at this rate.
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