Prometheus Boards

[Anonymous]

You make a good point. But it gets frustrating to think about $ going into tech when there so many human resource needs in many schools. But I hear your point.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher who started out using chalk and blackboards, and overhead projectors.

Much later in career, we're told we need to use more advanced technology to capture children's attention, never make them wait (boring, frustration) and never have them need to copy anything (everything is saved and they can access it later.)

So I comply. But I feel that we are changing out teaching techniques to accomodate the fact that children have less of an attention span, less ability to be patient, wait, and yes, even momentarily be bored by having no immediate visual input or way to immediately respond. We are taking children who have no attention span, no patience, no frustration tolerance, no ability to read, remember and write down... and instead of teaching them these skills, we are giving them ways to learn the material without needing to develop these skills.

Are we really sure that these skills aren't important for their developing minds? That's what I want to know. I'll grant you that I always thought teaching handwriting was important, but if all kids are ever going to do is input on a keyboard or touch screen, then maybe we can let that skill go the way of calligraphy. But... I'm not so sure about the rest.

[Anonymous]

Much later in career, we're told we need to use more advanced technology to capture children's attention, never make them wait (boring, frustration) and never have them need to copy anything (everything is saved and they can access it later.)

So I comply. But I feel that we are changing out teaching techniques to accomodate the fact that children have less of an attention span, less ability to be patient, wait, and yes, even momentarily be bored by having no immediate visual input or way to immediately respond. We are taking children who have no attention span, no patience, no frustration tolerance, no ability to read, remember and write down... and instead of teaching them these skills, we are giving them ways to learn the material without needing to develop these skills.

I would agree if chalk and overhead projectors actually increased children's attention spans, and improved patience. It didn't and doesn't. The kids will space out or be focused on copying what is on the board and not listening to you. If the model is going to continue to be teacher led, one to many classroom lectures or presentation then you really do need to incorporate technology. The goal is for students to learn the material not learn how to learn in a manner that is most comfortable for the teacher.

That said, I actually think the boards, video and other technologies are actually just keeping an ineffective model going long after it should have been replaced. IMO children learn better through doing and being given the time to do it. The ability to be an active contributor rather than a passive vessel combats the boredom and attention span. The nature of the activity can teach patience, rigor, and the skills we see vanishing. A simple example is a science experiment. The kids will learn more by doing it themselves than watching a demonstration. For younger kids there are tons of reading and writing games that can be used instead of reading a story and projecting the words on the board. Small groups of children reading to each other is more effective than a teacher reading to the students. For older kids, group projects where students are active in seeking out the information are effective.

In upper grades and even lower college courses, the use of power point is loved by students and increases test scores. However, PP is not increasing learning, it is increasing the probability that the students will know what the teacher plans to test them on. As a professional, I use PP to structure my presentation and highlight talking points around key aspects that I want the client to retain. Faculty use it the same way. This is fine as long as the teacher is including other work in the class that requires the student to independently seek out information and apply their analytical skills to the subject matter. This often does not happen in large classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would agree if chalk and overhead projectors actually increased children's attention spans, and improved patience. It didn't and doesn't. The kids will space out or be focused on copying what is on the board and not listening to you. If the model is going to continue to be teacher led, one to many classroom lectures or presentation then you really do need to incorporate technology. The goal is for students to learn the material not learn how to learn in a manner that is most comfortable for the teacher.

I have found that having (properly prepared and motivated) students copy notes from the board, take notes from oral lectures, and write from dictation have been extremely effective methods of developing attention span and improving comprehension of the lesson, as well as improving writing skill (spelling, punctuation, grammar and composition) in the early grades.

I agree technology can be very useful for other skills. I just dislike bring asked to use them because "Kids nowadays just can't sit and listen. They need to be constantly stimulated or they will turn off."