Sensory + Technology = Success!

Even though I’m considered a “digital native”, there are many times when I feel like a “digital immigrant” in the classroom. For example, when I was doing my undergrad student teaching, I had to work with Promethean and SMART boards and didn’t have a clue where to begin! Yet as this week’s articles point out, our students are quite familiar with these gadgets, love using them, and as in my case, can’t wait to “teach” the teacher how they work! Seeing their curiosity with technology inspires me to think outside the box and find ways to integrate this component in the curriculum. Along these lines, I loved when Bob Regan wrote, “we don’t want to teach our students science, we want them to become scientists.” In my view, a textbook is like a paintbrush; alone, it can do little, but when paint, paper, and a cup of water come into the picture, a beautiful painting is able emerge. As I’ve mentioned in prior blogs, my goal as an educator is to make learning come alive so that my students make connections with the material and apply it to real life situations. With the advancements that technology has made over the past few years, the possibilities for reaching all learners has increased tremendously and has provided for extensions of lessons that may not have been possible otherwise. Yet, seeing Andrew Churches’ creation of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy was fascinating because for the first time, I could see where “current” terminology (i.e. podcasting, twittering, googling) would fall in the tiers. Like the paintbrush analogy above, I can now use Bloom’s original and digital taxonomies as guides for the tools I’ll need in order to provide leveled scenarios that will make my students think and collaborate with others.

Although I find the rapid advancements in technology amazing, I still believe in the power of reaching every learner through non-tech means. Before reading the article that Gardner contributed to, I hadn’t really thought about the repercussions of solely relying on technology, probably because I never imagined myself doing so. Yet, in reading that gadgets such as computers and screens only use TWO out of the five senses (seeing and hearing) I was shocked! I mean, I do see how the other three are neglected, but I guess by being around them so much, I hadn’t given it much thought. Like John Dewey, I believe in the power of “learning by doing” and feel that educators and parents should create a balance between technology use and hands-on experiences. For instance, if I were to do a lesson on gardens, I could touch upon all the senses by using online sites for the step-by-step progressions of plants (and possibly a virtual field trip to a garden if a real one wasn’t possible), bring in different flowers so students could smell them and learn which aromas attract which insects, plant seeds in a clear glass container so students could see the roots of flowers and vegetables, and then bringing in roasted vegetables and zucchini flowers so that students could taste the products they watched grow and also learn that certain flowers can be eaten! Technology is great, but when combined with sensory components, our lessons have a greater chance of becoming meaningful and memorable.