Untapped Technological Resources

Eric Klopfer’s article, “The Instructional Power of Digital Games, Social Networking, Simulations and How Teachers can Leverage them” was very interesting. In the article, he provides various examples of how technology including digital games and social networking can help students develop and support high-level thinking. When describing a digital game, the developing skills that Klopfer describes are:

· Probing

· Observing one’s environment in response to stimuli introduced,

· Forming hypotheses, and

· Testing and altering single variables.

While I agree with what was shared in Klopfer’s article, I still have concerns. For one, some schools don’t have the resources to provide students with this opportunity of experiencing meaningful interactions with technology in the classroom. While social networking, blogging and other web based opportunities for students to share ideas can be a beneficial learning experience, I feel that the hesitation from teachers to incorporate it more into their curriculum come from the issue of resources. I feel that there is a way that we as educators could capitalize off the fact that students are constantly using technology. Whether it be through the use of their cell phones or just being online at home. Our educational system’s ban on electronics such as cell phones and iPods, severs a possible resource that we could be utilizing instead of fighting in the classroom. If there could be curriculum that shows students the effective ways they could be using these tools, we could better prepare them for the world.

There was one instance in my own classroom where students where making posters that displayed their own visual representations of identity. Due to the fact that my classroom computers were down at the time, one of my students asked if he could use the internet on his phone to see an image of a Native American, so that her could have a model to draw from for his poster. I allowed him to use it because he found a constructive way to use his communication device. There have been many other instances just like that one, where students want to supplement the lack of resources in the classroom but because of DOE regulations, they aren’t allowed to do so without getting in trouble.