Proust and the Squid, Posting #9

Today we have tons of technology influencing our children and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. There is anything from iPods to PSPs that kids use everyday. So this raises a question, how does this influence the kids and how can we use it to help them excel in literacy. This is something that I was seeing slowly arise in high school just before I had graduated, using technology to teach. As the old saying goes “if you can beat them, join them”. Since technology is quickly on the rise we needed to find a way to incorporate this into our lessons to keep kids interested because they are used to this type of technology at home. One way to combat this problem in regards to reading and writing is to show a movie as you read a book and have the students gather in groups to discuss the differences between the two. Maryanne wolf the author of my book says that children are pre-programmed for sound and touch ext. So why not use these to our advantage. We could have kids use technology in their projects instead of writing a cliché book report. A great example of this was in my high school English class my senior year. My teacher have us the option of writing a summary of the book, doing a presentation, writing a book review acting as a critic, or we could make a short movie trailer for the book. I chose the movie trailer and it was my favorite project of all time. This was because it was something different than just the old average book report. The uses of technology engaged my mind while I was reading the book because I needed details to make the trailer. Once I was acting the character in the book, it also gave me a different perspective of the book. I had to think outside the box to make the charter come alive in the movie trailer. Some of my other classmates did the same project and they had the same feeling as I did.

Wolf said in her book, Proust and the Squid that the options given to students, will allow them to engage their minds because they are choosing something and it is not being forced upon them.  I am also seeing the idea of using technology in the field of physical education. A good example of the use of technology is UNM’s P.E. department. They acquired a grant a bought iPad 2s and use the cameras on them to record students as they perform a skill. They them show the student the video so they can see what they are doing are well and not so well. As I said before, Wolf said that children are pre-programmed to sound, touch, and ext. So why not use this in our lessons? It will engage the learners and make hem more excited about learning. If we can do that than helping the student with literacy in their early development stages will be easer and more beneficial.