My Computer as a Communicator in the Past
Our kids played PacMan on my Apple IIC as teenagers and typed their high school senior theses. The first year our son was in the university in the US, I had no email. Communication was by letter and phone calls every two weeks. Email took over then and has carried our family, friends, and legal business ever since. Last summer digital photography was added to my repertoire. My desktops have been my tools of professional communication through such courses as Advanced English Grammar with the University of Tennessee, Expository Writing with the University of Washington, and Writing Children's Literature with the Institute in Connecticut.
Up until now my computer has been my telephone, my mail service and my typewriter.
My Computer as a Tool for the Future
Ahhh, now..... Now, in 1:1 I am learning all its other capabilities. In 2010-2011 I will have a "teaching assistant" in my classroom. For me in art classes, the computer's ability to bring examples of artists' lives and their work and students' work on screen for the whole class to discuss or write commentaries will be wonderful . A blog seems at this point the most user- friendly means to accomplish this.
By 2013 I see hard copies of books becoming obsolete. I see the necessity of courses on internet research techniques taught vertically throughout schools. However, in art I hope that I don't see a lessening of hands-on activities. In fact, hands-on will become even more important since the fine motor skills of writing will be taken over by keyboarding and page layout will become automatic.
I know that access to information will be multiplied again and again. I fear the students' ability to synthesize and evaluate this flood of information. Their backgrounds of reading and life experiences will be narrowing in many ways as the virtual supplants the real in their lives. Let us remember to teach respect for what has gone before us, being cautious about hurriedly pushing away the past 555 years since Gutenberg's moveable type, in our attempts to grasp at the future.
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A computer as a "teaching assistant" - so for the students could they become learning assistants?
ReplyDeletePaints, brushes, and palette knives will never be replaced - if anything, the ability to show life-size images of the works of the masters in your classroom will inspire more creativity.
And don't worry about computers atrophying the fine motor skills of our youth - you should see what some kids are able to design in Google Sketchup and online applications like Sumopaint!!! We'll cover these later in the course.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts :)
I love the computer too but I hope that 'hard copies' of books don't become obsolete. There is just something about holding a book in your hand that is wonderful. My kids were doing research about mini-beasts sharing books and it was a joy to see! While the internet has a vast amount of information on the same topic, the books are what the kids go back to and are using to deepen their understanding.
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