Interviews about the use of popular culture in the classroom

Interviews about the use of popular culture in the classroom

This week’s task where about parents or other teacher education students sight of the use of technology in the classroom. Sadly I only got to interview other students and their sight where the same.

I interviewed both an English and a Danish student, and they both weren’t afraid of using neither technology or popular culture. You just have to ask yourself the question – “What will the learning outcome be with this input?” That is a question you need to ask yourself every time your entering the classroom door as a teacher.

I think Marc Prensky has a point in his explanation of how kids are playing video games.

“Several hours a day, five days a week, sharply focused attention—does that remind you of anything? Oh, yes—video games!”

We still need to have the subject in mind while teaching. If one pupil struggles with putting a comma in the right place – hours of Tetris on their game boy won’t help them neither will watching Sesame Street. So back to the Question: “what do they need to learn – what will the outcome be?”

We cannot close our eyes to the future, a lot of things has changed in a very little time. In the seminar we were asked to think of when we got our first phone/PC and it got into me that ten years ago when I where finishing high school my dad helped med bringing our families stationary computer. In contrast of today’s school where having a laptop and an Ipad is perfectly normal we also need to interact to those new possibilities. Our work is to prepare the pupils for the social community and for the future and from my point of view, my education takes place online. In Denmark I only go to school every 1,5 month and the rest of the time I’m online skyping or uploading tasks. That has coasted me a lot of struggle because I didn’t participate in the digital world before now.

As a teacher we also need to get along with the ethics and use of the internet and social networking. We must teach the pupils in how to come around the internet, how they navigate safe and also how you present yourself on the social networks. Especially the social networking can interrupt the classroom such as bullying. I think it is important as a teacher to participate in the social network so you know what is going on there.

References

The Byron Review  (2008)

Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants