"Let the Students Play"

This is one of the harder topics in digital media for me to address. The reason? I am graduating in May and moving to Houston to teach elementary school. So this topic, the topic of the effects of technology and digital media in the classroom, is very relevant not only for me long term for when I have kids of my own, but for me right now as a soon-to-be elementary school teacher who has to find out on my own what role technology will play in my own classroom. 

If you had asked me point blank without any research and after simply reading this article, I would have said technology would have a very minimal role in my classroom. I would have said that I was a millennial, a product of the technology generation, and that I knew the statistics behind how technology can hamper learning. I would have said that teachers should be allowed to teach however they see fit, and not forced to integrate technology into their curriculums. And I would have said that, for low income school particularly, technology integration in schools added a whole other level of separation between them and their higher income peers. 

But those views are starting to change. I'm starting to see things a little bit differently. Part of the reason for this change was the New York Times article. Although I don't necessarily think this is what they intended readers to get out of the article, what I got was the overwhelming verification that teachers needed to  adapt with the times. I am joining the Teach for America Corps. This is a profession that believes in transformative education-- not in relying solely on traditional methods. Traditional methods work much of the time, that is why they have become tradition. But times change and we, as teachers, must adapt with those times. 

Then I found this video of a TED talk by a fellow teacher. In the video, she discusses "21st Century Learning." She outlines the ways she has implemented technology into her curriculum. I loved what she had to say. I loved the way she related real world digital technology to elementary education. She talks about "letting the students play," and not in a sense that makes them unruly but in a way that allows them to enjoy their education. She made me want to be a 21st century teacher. I'm not saying that I want to integrate technology as much as she does, but what I do want is to engage children through a variety of mediums that they can relate to. It doesn't really matter how I learned material, times are different and students are going to learn differently. I want to follow Kayla's advice and use digital media in my own classroom so instead of "giving students an education, making them want to take it."

I encourage you to watch the short video of Kayla's talk below.