"Listening to the Natives"

Monday, September 04, 2006

"Listening to the Natives"
After reading Marc Prensky's article "Listening to the Natives," I agree with most of what he advocates for a technology-rich learning environment for our students. However, one of his points hit a nerve with me. When he is discussing the use of cell phones in the classroom, he writes, "Why shouldn't our students have the same option [voting with their attention]with their education when educators fail to deliver compelling content." Ok, cell phones can be used productively in the classroom if the teacher knows what he/she is doing, but my experience is that students text message one another while the lesson is going on. Regardless of how stimulating the lesson is, not every 16 yr. old in your class is compelled to learn everyday. If a relationship ended at lunch, no lesson is going to keep a 16 yr. old girl from talking with her friends anyway possible. Since I wouldn't permit chatting in my classroom, I certainly wouldn't permit text messaging, which I feel is inevitable if the cell phone is handy. I know Prensky isn't saying that we should allow our students to zone out, but all it takes is one student who is having a bad day to distract all the others from your top-notch lesson. At this point in my experience, I think that cell phones should be banned from the classroom. Am I being a "digital immigrant" here? Is my accent showing??
posted by Danielle Utter at 12:13 PM

6 Comments:

KES said...
In short, I would say yes you are .. and I can hear your accent!!! You say just as you wouldn't permit chatting..clarify. I know you're not advocating a silent classroom with all eyes trained on teacher!! KES
1:56 PM

Danielle Utter said...
Of course I'm not advocating for a silent classroom. My most successful days in the classroom were when I had every student engaged and interacting. Interacting, not chatting. By chatting I mean whispering to a neighbor during class about what happened at lunch. I think this can be reduced when students gain respect for you and you respect them. At this point I just see cell phones as another way to lose the interest of students. During my student teaching, I had to take a cell phone away from a student who was texting her friend across the room. It is disappointing when you have spent time on a lesson when the students just zone you out. So again, I certaintly do not advocate a teacher-centered room by any means, but I do expect the students' attentions to be united as a whole class, not divided by students texting one another about what happened at lunch. I'm not against using cell phones for productivity, but I don't know how I would do that. Ideas?
2:34 PM

Larisa said...
Danielle,I agree with you that, at this point, cell phones should be banned from the classroom. We had a huge issue with students text messaging each other answers during tests. When doing an activity during science, their friends, who were taking a test in math, would text message the question and wait for the response. Not only did the student who was taking the test receive the answer, but the test questions were now "out there" for the rest of the students to know. There are just too many other factors to worry about on a daily basis, then to deal with cell phone use in the classroom.
2:38 PM

Sarah said...
I have had to compete with cell phones in my classroom as well, and it can be extremely frustrating. My first day of teaching not only did a phone loudly ring in class, but the student answered it. There was no apology for disrupting the class. I was appalled.Now, having read this article, I am encouraged. I would love to be able to say to my students, "We're not using our phones - yet." I would love to be able to create a time and place to use this technology that is so readily available. I personally think that banning cell phones is not the best way to handle the situation. The reality is that the majority of students have cell phones which are parent-santioned (of course, cheating with the phone is NOT acceptable in any way). Students need to be taught how to responsibly use their phones in the same way that they need to learn how to responsibly participate in the Read/Write Web (as Richardson calls it). In addition, I have to wonder how/why students had time to text back and forth during class. Shouldn't they have been actively learning? Shouldn't the teacher be monitoring the room durinng the test? Shouldn't there be "test taking conditions" set up in the classroom?Finally, I will attempt to step outside the box in an effort to really think about how to integrate technology into the classroom. Could cell phones be used to study for the test? Quizzing each other back and forth using their cell phones might make review more engaging. Maybe even more successful. It also would demonstrate a time and place to use cell phones as a learning tool. I'm just trying to shift my paradigm over here...what do you all think?Sarah
3:46 PM

Dave E. said...
I'm not going to make a long comment here or anything, but I think that if you can keep the students engaged... moving... on their toes... et cetera... then the TXT messaging can be kept to a minimum. An active classroom has much less potential for "chatting" than a lecture classroom. Sure, you won't eliminate it, but you're never going to.
3:53 PM

Danielle Utter said...
I have heard of students cheating on tests before with use of their cell phones, but I have never witnessed it. Similar to what Sarah said, it would be nice to take away some of the rebellion associated with sneaking messages in class. If the teacher embraced the use of cell phones for certain things (such as studying, perhaps) then maybe texting wouldn't be such an attraction. The student I was talking about earlier who I had to take the cell phone away from was clearly rebelling against me. If it wasn't a big deal to have a cell phone in your hand in the classroom, maybe the issue would die down. What do you think? Thanks for the reactions and ideas. Keep 'em coming!